The Brothers Grimm and the Musical Enchantress
by Bubble Wrapped Kitty
Summary: When an unsuspecting new ally resurrects the Mirror Queen she begins her revenge on the Brothers. Soon her rise to power turns personal and the Grimms must race to save her new victims, and themselves, before her spell is complete.
1. Shattered Glass and Cursed Music

Disclaimer: I don't own Brothers Grimm or any of the characters from the previously mentioned film. All I've got is an over-active imagination.

* * *

**Prologue**

_Shattered Glass and Cursed Music_

The light of the crescent moon illuminated the stone wreckage, barely reaching through the foreboding mass of trees surrounding the remains. Hundreds of ravens shifted in the trees, grouped together and waiting: their tasks had been fulfilled and now shuffled in anticipation, preparing for what only Fate could provide. The hours dragged on into the night and the indistinct moon continued its journey across the sky.

A twig snapped at the edge of the clearing and in a great wave every bird took to the sky, eclipsing the moon with their wings. Startled by the sudden exodus, a young traveller cried out in fear and reflexively drew a wicked dagger from his belt. The man was tall and thin, garbed in a faded vest speckled with colourful patches over the top of his tunic and breeches. As one hand held the dagger up, the other clutched at a leather pouch on his belt protectively.

"Hello?" he called out tentatively, his vibrant green eyes scanning the area suspiciously. His voice, although trembling, was clear and lilting, betraying an obvious musical talent.

The air in the clearing was still humming with the same strange energy that had attracted the birds, but instead of alluring, the young man found it disturbing. He began to inch carefully around the edge of the grove, hoping to be away from the place and on his way. His heartbeat accelerated the closer he got to the heart of the clearing and he couldn't help but wonder what had caused the enormous ruins, and what a building was doing in the centre of the woods in the first place.

When he had gotten halfway around, a new sound caught his ears and made him stop short. It wasn't the sort of sound that he would have expected to hear in the forest; it was the soft murmur of a woman's voice. The young man listened to the delicate but indiscernible words, entranced by the mere sound. Her voice was sweet and accented, but her words seemed to be filled with a great sorrow and her speech occasionally broke with remorseful sobs.

"Hello?" the young man called out again when he'd regained his mind. He wanted nothing more than to find the woman who belonged to the beautiful voice. The murmuring paused and an uneasy silence filled the air again. "I mean you no harm," he said reassuringly.

"Who are you?" the woman asked. He looked in the direction of the voice but still could see no one.

"My name is Friedrich of Hamelin," the young man responded, still scanning the rubble for any sign of movement. "Who are you? Where are you hiding?"

"I am a broken woman, once powerful and now shattered. I hide in the shelter of my cursed prison, where I've dwelt for five long years in wait of a saviour." The woman sighed heavily and a small sob entered her voice again. "Are you my saviour, Friedrich?"

"I am no saviour," Friedrich said quickly, sliding his dagger back into its sheath. "I am only a humble rat catcher and musician."

"Music is what I need to be set free," the woman said, her voice brimming with eager hope. "Please, Friedrich, do not leave me alone in this horrible place." Her sobs redoubled and Friedrich felt his heart break for the woman.

"I will help you, fräulein, if you tell me how," he said solemnly, grasping the pouch at his belt all the more tightly.

"First you must come to me and make me whole," the woman demanded gently. "Follow my voice and you shall find me."

"I am coming," Friedrich answered, moving through the ruins toward the captivating voice. He stepped forward over a fallen column and gasped in horror. There was a small area cleared in the centre of the wreckage that was littered with shards of glass, and each piece showed a different part of a human's body. Friedrich noted pieces of a beautiful gown of deep scarlet and gold, delicate skin as pale as snow, and a charming face. The eyes were absorbing and he instantly fell in love with the exquisite woman.

"Locate my frame," she said, the image of her ruby lips flickering across scattered pieces of glass. Friedrich, speaking with rapture, simply nodded and scrambled away over the crumbling ruins. It didn't take him very long to locate an aesthetic golden frame with a blank, wooden back. Excited, the young man brought it back to where the glass lay and she smiled. "Yes, that is it. Now lay it down and make me whole, young prince."

Friedrich's body trembled with delight. She had called him her prince! She must feel some of the same attraction that he felt for her. Eagerly, he began to gather up the fragments of glass and fitting them into the frame to recreate the form of a woman. He worked feverishly , not caring that the shards tore at his palms and crimson blood dripped from his fingertips. It took more than an hour for him to organise all of the pieces and when he had finished he stepped back to admire his work.

The glass turned out to be that of a mirror, and now that it was together he could see his own reflection standing beside that of the woman. His straw-blonde hair was sticking out from beneath the rim of his woollen cap, and compared to her he was exceedingly dull and unattractive.

"You have done brilliantly," the woman complimented, raising her hand to brush the cheek of his reflection. Friedrich felt the velveteen touch but when he glanced over his shoulder there was nothing but shadow behind him. "No, our work is not yet through. There is more that must be done before I will be free."

"What must I do, milady?" Friedrich asked instantly and, without any conscious thought about it, sank to one knee with his head bent in respect.

"Find my golden stake," the woman answered. "It is very powerful and its magic is required to set me free. You _must_ find it."

"Of course," Friedrich agreed and rushed off in search of the item. The moon had travelled much farther in its journey before the young musician's cry of triumph split the silence. He hurried back to the mirror with all the eagerness of a pet expecting a reward from its master.

"I have found it, milady," Friedrich reported joyfully, displaying the large stake of gold clasped in his palm. The top was decorated with a strange symbol: a pointed crown encircling a heart, clasped in the hands of a lion whose mouth was opened in a roar. The stake's colour was tarnished, no longer the pure gold it had been in the past but a rusty blend of scarlet and flaxen.

"Wonderful," the queen said, for he was certain now that she was a queen. Resting atop her head was a beautiful golden crown and her chocolate brown ringlets were wrapped up inside of it. "Now lastly you must play a tune for me. Do you have an instrument?"

"Indeed," the young man responded and from the pouch on his belt he drew a beautifully carved flute. Its long, mahogany body was decorated with pictures of animals and children dancing together, and it was Friedrich's most treasured possession. "What should I play?"

"A tune of my own make," the mirror woman replied. "If I hum the chords, can you play them?" Friedrich nodded and the queen cleared her throat. She began humming softly and the musician felt himself lost in the bitter-sweet beauty of her voice, sighing with contentment as her enchanting music filled him with energy like the breath of life. When she stopped, Friedrich opened his eyes and watched her sadly, regretting that the music had ended.

"Can you play that?" the queen asked curiously, twisting a loose curl around a finger.

"Anything for you, my queen," Friedrich returned. He inhaled and lifted the flute to his lips. From his instrument sprouted a flawless rendition of the woman's chords and she clapped her milky hands in pleasure.

"That was perfect," the mirror woman said. "Now you must play that while I sing. You will have to repeat it several times, but if done correctly I will soon be free of this prison and you shall receive my thanks, handsome prince."

Friedrich bowed his head, mind whirring at the thought of receiving a gift from the heavenly queen. Then he placed the flute to his lips again, closed his eyes in concentration, and played the music. Almost immediately the queen joined in, her saccharine voice blending perfectly with his notes. The words she spoke were foreign and rough but even Friedrich could feel the magic beneath them and he sensed the air around him vibrating with power.

The cracks in the glass melted together, turning the mirror into a seamless pane of glass. Soon the surface began to ripple softly, like water when blown upon. Gracefully, the magic words still blossoming from her lips, the queen stepped forward and her slippered foot passed through the glass and brushed onto the leaf-strewn ground. The rest of her body was soon to follow until the mirror queen stood outside her frame, admiring herself as she stopped singing.

Friedrich continued playing, afraid to stop should he ruin his queen's chance of freedom. When she stopped singing he only played better, fearing that something had gone awry. The queen smiled slightly at his spellbound devotion and moved towards him. Like a butterfly, her hand settled on his shoulder and she whispered, "You may stop now, my prince."

Slowly the young man lowered his pipe, eyes still shut tight, afraid that he was hallucinating. Finally he turned to face her and let his eyes slide open.

There she stood before him, infinitely more radiant than he had first believed her. Everything about her resonated power and beauty, and Friedrich felt his breath sucked out of his chest. She graced him with a gentle smile and he fell to his knee, eager to pay homage to such a wonderful being.

"Rise, dearest," the queen said tenderly, offering one of her hands to him. The piper rose to his feet and lightly touched his lips to her knuckles. When he again stood in front of her, she brushed the side of his face compassionately and let her fingers rest along his jawbone. "Do you wish to stay with me eternally, to be my prince?"

"I would give up my life to serve you, my queen," Friedrich answered. The queen smiled; it was precisely what she wanted to hear.

"This is great news, for I would be sad to see you leave me now," the queen simpered. While she slid the hand on his face down onto his neck her other hand moved forward and drew the dagger sheathed at his waist. She plunged the blade into his stomach three times in quick succession. The piper gasped in horror and collapsed to the ground where he looked up at her with hurt eyes as the blood stained his tunic and the ground beneath him.

"I am sorry, my prince," the queen said, kneeling beside him. "I did not wish to harm you but you must be faced with death before I can save you." Friedrich trembled with spasms and he choked, blood speckling his lips, as his fingers slid over the deep holes in his torso.

"Look into my eyes, Friedrich," the queen commanded gently. The dying man looked up into her eyes, although his sight was beginning to fog. In those eyes he found a sanctuary and felt himself drawn towards her. She had not meant him injury, it had been necessary. "Do you still wish to serve me?"

"Yes, my queen," Friedrich answered. Struggling against his rebelling body, the piper rose into a kneeling position before the queen and inclined his head once again. The queen reached behind her and her fingers found the golden stake. She hefted it and placed a comforting hand on Friedrich's chest. The hand with the stake lunged forward and forced the stained gold into his heart. The piper stiffened and then relaxed as he felt his body's pain melt away. He slid a hand over his stomach and found the holes shrinking beneath his fingertips until they closed entirely.

The queen cleared her throat almost inaudibly and Friedrich raised his eyes to gaze into hers again. "My prince," she said, touching his cheek again. "Who is the fairest of them all?"

"You are, my queen," the piper answered. The queen leaned forward and when her lips met Friedrich's the spell became complete. He was utterly under her control now, and she was alive again.

"Now you must help me once more," the queen said at the conclusion of their kiss. "We must seek out and destroy those who hurt and imprisoned me." The pied piper of Hamelin nodded eagerly, waiting for further instruction. "We must finish the spells they ruined and then we must seek out and kill the Brothers Grimm."


	2. Arrivals of Various Natures

**Chapter One **

_Arrivals of Various Natures_

Jakob Grimm bolted through the bustling village of Marbaden, his face split in a delirious grin as he shouted the good news to anyone who would listen. Several people replied to him, making comments or giving congratulations, but their words fell on deaf ears as Jakob continued on his mad race. His feet finally brought him to a stone-and-wood hut, and without knocking he pushed the door open and skidded to a stop inside.

"Will?" Jakob shouted, glancing around the room for his elder sibling.

Wilhelm Grimm walked through from the other room, a closed leather book in his hands. "Jake, what's got you so-?" But Wilhelm never got to finish his sentence as Jakob charged across the room and engulfed his brother in a bone-crushing hug.

"Will, you have to come," Jakob demanded as he released his brother. Not giving him a chance to speak, Jakob grabbed the elder Grimm's arm and ran out of the door, dragging a confused Wilhelm behind him.

"Jake, what is going on?" Wilhelm called as he raced along behind his brother. Jakob was a rather imaginative person and he wanted to be sure he wasn't being pulled away from his work for some fantastical reason.

"It's Angelika," Jakob yelled back over his shoulder, not slowing his pace. Comprehension suddenly lit Wilhelm's eyes and he quickened his gait to keep up with his younger sibling. A few minutes later they finally slowed to a stop outside a large hut, the sounds of murmured voices and pained cries coming from inside. Jakob settled instantly to pacing anxiously outside the front door, and Wilhelm perched on a pile of logs nearby and tried not to laugh as he watched his brother. Knowing it was going to be quite the wait, Wilhelm drew out the little book he'd brought with him and retrieved the quill from between the pages. His eyes pored over the pages and he bit the tip of his tongue in concentration, occasionally scratching out lines that he disliked.

Eventually Jakob noticed his brother's actions and wandered over in curiosity. "What are you doing?"

"I liked some of your stories so much I thought I'd try my hand at it," Wilhelm explained. He sighed and laid his quill in his lap as Jakob pried the book from his hand. The younger Grimm perused the pages in interest, and when he had finished he bobbed his head thoughtfully.

"That's a wonderful story, Will," Jakob said. The competitive side neither of them had completely outgrown was grudging to admit that Wilhelm was at least as talented as he was at storytelling. "Where'd you get the idea?"

"Where do you think?" Wilhelm asked, casting his gaze at the distant forest. Jakob grimaced and nodded, also eyeing the looming forest that edged the village. Even though the Mirror Queen had been destroyed and her enchantment over the woods had been removed, the woods still filled everyone with fear and wonder. Very few people dared to enter the forest even to this day.

The Grimms' attention was diverted to the wooden door as the sounds on the other side changed drastically. There were gasps of pain and then suddenly a piercing cry split the morning air. Jakob jumped up and resumed his feverish pacing, and Wilhelm tucked away his book and watched the door expectantly.

Long minutes later the door swung open and an aged woman strode out with a smile on her face. Jakob was so embroiled in his pacing that he didn't even notice her until she cleared her throat and said, "Mister Grimm?" The younger brother glanced up and hurried over, bouncing on the balls of his feet in nervous anticipation. Wilhelm rose and placed a calming hand on his brother's shoulder to steady him. "You may go in now. She's-"

Jakob didn't even stay until the end of the sentence, dashing passed the woman and almost knocking her aside in his eagerness. Wilhelm helped to steady the woman, who was laughing. "Sorry, he's a bit excited," Wilhelm offered.

"They always are," the woman replied. "Well I'll be off. Everything went well, and she's a real beauty."

"Thank you," Wilhelm said sincerely and then rushed into the house. Jakob was kneeling at Angelika's side, his hands grasping her arm lovingly. Angelika's face was glistening with sweat, but a pleased smile decorated her face. Clutched in her arms was a bundle of blankets, concealing the newborn infant. Jakob was speechless, staring at this new life-form in amazement as though she was a creature of his fantasy come to life.

Wilhelm grinned as he approached the little family and leaned in to survey the child in her mother's arms. "Oh my little child, you are more beautiful than I imagined," he whispered lovingly. Jakob glanced up at his, his brow furrowed. "Angelika never told you?" Wilhelm asked in disbelief. "The child is mine, not yours. Sorry brother, but you always knew I'd get the girl in the end."

Jakob glanced from the child to his brother and then punched him in the stomach. "You sot," he said, shaking his head.

Wilhelm stumbled backwards, laughing. "You're just so gullible," he said in defence of the joke. Angelika rolled her eyes at the pair of them and went back to tending to the child. Changing the subject, Wilhelm nodded toward the infant girl and asked, "What will you name her?"

"Do you have any ideas, my briar rose?" Jakob asked Angelika. She shook her head, but watched him hopefully. They all knew that the imaginative Grimm would come up with something brilliant.

Jakob took off his glasses to rub the bridge of his nose thoughtfully. It was several minutes later before he replaced them and gazed affectionately at the infant. "What about Aurora?"

"It's beautiful," Angelika agreed, stroking the child's cheek. "Aurora."

"Amazing," Wilhelm said, and nudged his brother's shoulder. "Sometimes you aren't as stupid as I though, Jake."

Jakob was too busy admiring his child to respond, but on the inside he beamed with pride at what he knew was a compliment.

. . . . .

Later that week all four Grimms were seated around the table, enjoying a celebratory dinner, when suddenly Wilhelm cleared his throat. Jakob glanced at him with a raised eyebrow, wondering what could put such a serious expression on his brother's face.

"What do you think of my settling down?" Wilhelm asked, and the unexpected question caught even Angelika's attention.

"You?" Jakob asked in surprise. Of all the people to settle down, he never expected his headstrong brother to be one to want that life. "Do you have someone in mind?"

"Not necessarily," Wilhelm admitted. "There are two lasses here in town that have caught my eyes, but I didn't mean I was settling down right away. I just wanted to know if it seemed like an impossible lifestyle for me."

"What's going on here, Will?" Jakob asked suspiciously. "You've never asked my opinion or advice before."

"There's nothing going on," Wilhelm said grumpily. "It was just a question. It's just that with everything that's been happening to you, I wondered if that's something I will ever have, or if Fate has decided I'm unfit for such things."

"Of course not," Angelika interrupted. "I think you would make a very good husband and father, so long as you find a woman you love." Wilhelm gazed at Angelika; part of him had always thought she may be his woman, but she was more suited for Jakob in the end.

"Thank you," Wilhelm said softly. "Now the problem is just to find a woman I can love."

"You will find her," Jakob assured him. "There must be some lass in this world who can put up with you."

"Aye, maybe a lass from one of your faerie tales can come for me," Wilhelm said jokingly.

"Maybe," Jakob nodded mysteriously. Wilhelm laughed shortly. "Remember beans, dear brother." Wilhelm rolled his eyes. Since the events in the Forests of Marbaden, Jakob had taken to reversing the old provocation, reminding the elder Grimm that magic did exist.

"Well then give me one of your beans and I can plant it and grow myself a pretty lass," Wilhelm said with a shake of his head.

A heavy knocking on the door made they all jump in surprise. Aurora began to whimper softly, and Angelika hurried to calm her. Wilhelm lifted an eyebrow at Jakob, and the latter rose to answer the door. He opened it with a casual hello and finished with a muffled shout as the figure outside the door leapt at him, wrapping him tightly in its arms.

"What the-" Wilhelm cursed, jumping to his feet and moving closer. Then the figure spoke and Wilhelm fell back, laughing as understanding hit him.

"Oh Mister Grimm-y, so good to see-a you again," the man in black shouted cheerfully, his voice thickly accented.

"Cavaldi?" Jakob asked, his voice coming in a crushed gasp as the Italian man squeezed him. Wilhelm's laughter redoubled and he fell back against the table.

"S_ì, __sì,_ it is I, Cavaldi," the man responded, finally releasing Jakob and stepping back. The Italian torturer was garbed in all black except for the shining silver armour he still wore. His toupee was firmly in place, covering his head in a thick mat of wavy brown curls, and his face was currently split with a broad, toothy grin. _  
_

"Cavaldi, it's good to see you well," Wilhelm said, attempting to stifle his laughter.

"You-a too, Grimm-y," Cavaldi answered, hurrying to wrap Wilhelm in an embrace as well. "You-a look good. And I-s still wears pretty armour, see-a? Cavaldi not-a forget."

"Yes, I saw that," Wilhelm chuckled. "It fits you well. Has it served you well?"

"S_ì, _very well," Cavaldi replied, stroking the breastplate affectionately. Suddenly he spotted Angelika and her child, and a wild exclamation left him. "A Grimm-y baby? How _magnifico._ What is the name? Wilhelm Junior?

"Her name's Aurora," Jakob answered, a slight edge to his voice. "And I would never name my child after that fool." Wilhelm shot a stubborn glance at him but the effect was tarnished by his smile.

"Ah, the child of Jack-ob. _Eccellente_!" Cavaldi dashed back to the younger Grimm and hugged him again. "So _magnifico_! I very happy for-a you."

"Thank you," Jakob said, his grin returning. The proud father crossed the room to stand next to Angelika and gazed at Aurora rapturously. Cavaldi followed like a timid puppy. As he approached, Angelika rose and kissed his cheek in welcome. After he had saved the lives of the brothers Grimm and herself, she had taken a kinder disposition to the torturer.

"You look-a very pretty, signora Grimm," Cavaldi said delicately. He still held a guilty place in his heart as he remembered that he had nearly taken her life more than once while working for General Delatombe. "Your baby, she is-a very _bella."_

"Thank you, Mercurio," Angelika said with a smile. The Italian man flushed slightly.

"So what has brought you back to Marbaden?" Wilhelm asked, conveniently breaking apart the awkward silence.

"I wished to see-a the Grimm-ies," Cavaldi said grandly, beaming at the brothers. "Also, I come-a for my work."

"Ah, so you found another job?" Jakob asked eagerly.

"_Sì,_" Cavaldi nodded. "I deliver wares for wealthy businessman in-a Frankfurt. Very _importante_ job."

"That's wonderful, Cavaldi," Wilhelm said jovially, patting the Italian man on the shoulder. "I am glad you could find such a suiting job."

"The Grimm-ies find job as well?" Cavaldi inquired.

"Not particularly," Jakob admitted. "We made enough money from our past – _occupation_ – to survive for a long time without work. Right now we are simply living as storytellers."

"Damn good storytellers, I might add," Wilhelm inserted, making Jakob laugh. "We have told your story dozens of times to the children in town, Cavaldi. It is a marvel you were not greeted with a parade when you showed up."

This time the blush on Cavaldi's cheeks was pronounced and he smiled modestly. "I not want-a such attention. It was Grimm-ies who save day."

"Aye," Angelika agreed, "but it was you, Cavaldi, who saved the Grimms."

"Precisely," Wilhelm concurred. "So, how long will you be in town for?"

"Not-a very long," the Italian sighed. "Only a few days while-a business is sorted, then I continue on-a to Hamburg."

"That's unfortunate," Wilhelm shrugged. "Well, you must accompany me down to the inn for a pint."

"_Magnifico_," Cavaldi grinned.

"Will you be joining us, Jake?" Wilhelm asked, his mood lightened at the thought of a good mug of beer.

Jakob turned his inquiring gaze to Angelika, who smiled fondly. "Go along, Jakob," she encouraged. "Aurora and I will be fine. Go, have a good time."

"That we will," Wilhelm assured her boldly.

"Goodnight, my briar rose," Jakob said softly, embracing his wife. "I shan't be too late." Then he kissed his drowsing daughter on the brow before following the others out the door.

. . . . .

Down at the inn, the air was thick and rowdy. Groups of men were clustered around the tables, drinking heavily from mugs and playing games of chance. The room was filled with the flickering light of the tallow candles set on each table, and the heady smell teased the nose. As the trio entered, several men called out welcomes to the brothers, their words slurred under the influence of the alcohol.

Cavaldi and Jakob sat down at an unoccupied table close to the bar and Wilhelm went to get drinks. He returned quickly, bearing three mugs topped with white froth. The men toasted their good fortune to be reunited and in health, and drank deeply. Hours passed far into the night as they drank, talking of all that had happened in the years since they'd last been together.

"How did-a you manage to stay in Germany?" Cavaldi asked interestedly. "There were posters for your arrest in-a every town I passed through."

"Simple," Wilhelm answered with a shrug. "We stayed in Marbaden for a short while, until the soldiers arrived. Then we left. We disappeared into other countries not controlled by the damned French. Not long after we left, the French started to lose ground. We fought with the Russians to gain back their lands, then returned to Germany to do the same. After Germany was freed from Napoleon's grasp, we came back to Marbaden."

"And Jack-ob married," Cavaldi said with a sly smile.

Jakob grinned and his face reddened. "Yes, shortly after we came back. We've been married for nearly a year now."

"_Magnifico_," the Italian said, his voice muffled as he lifted his mug again. "_Magnifico_."


	3. From Faeries to Farewells

**Chapter Two**

_From Faeries to Farewells_

Midnight rolled into the darkened world, the night shadowed even more heavily by the new moon. As a musty breeze blew down the country road outside, the inn door swung open and everyone's attention was drawn to the new denizen.

She was very short and appeared to be around the age of fourteen. Her long, golden hair fell in a braid down to her waist, pulled back to reveal a round face of pale skin and dark, black eyes. It was not so much her appearance that caught everyone's attention, as the fact that there was a sable fox perched on her shoulder, its tail draped around her neck like a scarf.

The maiden walked confidently to the bar, either oblivious or tastefully ignoring the stares. She climbed onto a barstool and set her travel pack on the seat next to her. The barman was occupied in the back room she so sat in wait, and gradually the spectators lost interest and returned to their previous attentions.

"Who is she?" Jakob wondered rhetorically. Cavaldi and Wilhelm both shook their heads in bewilderment. "Have you ever seen her before?"

"No," Wilhelm answered. "She's obviously travelled a ways. Look at the state of her clothing and her pack."

"Hamelin," a feminine voice said, and the men looked up to see the young girl staring at them. "If you wish to talk about someone I advise you lower your voice."

"And I advise you not to listen in on conversations that you are not a part of," Wilhelm replied.

"But I was, Mister Grimm," the girl countered. "I was the topic of the conversation and therefore I was the basis for its very existence."

Wilhelm stared at her in shock, struck dumb by such logic from a young child. "Who are you?"

"Who I am is my own business, but my name is Lorita," the girl supplied. Without asking she slid off her stool, gathered her pack, and then perched on the empty chair between Jakob and Cavaldi.

"How did you know my name?" Wilhelm asked, suspicion etched on his face.

"Your feats are known across all of Germany," Lorita said sarcastically. "How could I not? Besides, we have had the misfortune to meet before."

"We have?" Wilhelm asked, taken aback. "When?"

"You and your brother rid my village, Waldämon, of a troll many years ago," Lorita answered primly. "I was the daughter of the woodsman who stumbled across your so-called troll."

"Impossible," Jakob said. "You are far too young to be her. If so, you wouldn't have grown a day since we were there."

"True," Lorita agreed, "but there is a significant difference between growing and ageing While I have not grown more than a few centimetres since we last met, I have _aged_ over seven years. How old do you believe me?"

"You appear no older than thirteen, fourteen at the most," Jakob admitted and was perturbed by the faint smile on the girl's face.

"Would you believe me if I told you that you're wrong by nearly a decade?" Lorita inquired, her lips curved in a sly smirk. Jakob and Cavaldi both gasped but Wilhelm rolled his eyes and snorted sceptically. "I turned twenty-two at the start of the spring."

"How did you achieve such an ability?" Wilhelm asked doubtfully. "Take a tumble into the Fountain of Youth?"

"Hardly," Lorita said shrewdly, eyeing the elder Grimm distastefully. "Although if you had been more polite, I might have been willing to share my tale with you, _Mister_ Grimm." She put unnecessary stress on the title, drawing it out with as much disdain as she could manage.

"Please excuse me," Jakob said suddenly. "I would like a quick word with my brother. Will?"

Wilhelm glared back at Jakob before finally grunting and moving away from the table with him. When they were out of hearing range of Lorita and Cavaldi, Jakob whispered angrily, "What the hell is your problem, Will?"

"The load of nonsense that girl is trying to pull on you," Wilhelm hissed back. "Are you so lost in fantasy that you cannot see what a yarn she's spinning? This is how Lotte died - " Wilhelm stopped abruptly, silenced by the pained look on his younger sibling's face. "I'm sorry, Jake. It's simply…"

"Beans, Will, that's what it is," Jakob responded shortly, his face tight. "That's why you can't stand it. It's beans." With that proclamation Jakob turned on his heel and returned to the table. As Jakob pressed Lorita to tell her story, Wilhelm stayed where he had been left, rubbing his temples and trying to slow his breathing in a futile attempt to suppress the pain he felt.

"Will your sceptical brother be joining us?" Lorita inquired, gazing at Wilhelm with a raised eyebrow.

"Yes," Wilhelm said, sliding into the seat across from her. He took a quick swig from his mug and then cast mockingly attentive eyes on the small woman.

Lorita cleared her throat. "I am so small because I'm part-faerie." The men at the table drew a collective breath. "My father never married, but more than anything he wanted a child. One day in the forest he was drowsing, and when he awoke he saw a faerie lying on the ground near his foot. The faerie told him that if he would split his lunch with her, then she would grant his dearest wish. He agreed and when he told the faerie what he wanted, she produced a golden seen from her pouch.

"'Plant this seed and very soon a tree shall grow. It will grow far more quickly than ordinary trees, so by the mid-summer festivals it will be a fully matured tree. In the autumn, when the very last leaf falls from its branches and no sooner than that, take your axe and split the tree down its length. Inside you shall discover your wish. Mind your patience however, for if you do not wait for the last leaf to fall you will become part of the tree.'

"With this final statement, the faerie flew away. My father hurried home and planted the golden seed near the house. Every day he watered it and kept the area around it firmly free of weeds. The faerie's words came true, and by summer the laurel tree was as tall as any in the forest. Finally the day came when the very last leaf sailed to the ground and he went to the tree.

"Aware that his only child could be inside the tree he swung softly, and the bark crumbled around his blows. He created a ridge in the trunk from branches to the ground before dropping his axe Then he slid his fingers into this crack and pulled the bark away with his own fingers. When he reached the centre of the tree he found me, a small child, a year in age and no bigger than his forearm.

"He cared for me well and loved me so dearly, even though as the years progressed I grew very little. Many of the other children made fun of me because of my size and most parents feared me because they knew I wasn't – _normal_ – but he always stood by me and told me that I was a priceless treasure, a magical gift that kept him alive.

"I believed it right up until the day he died."

"How did he die?" Jakob asked, forgetting his manners in the thrill of the story.

"He went into the forest one day to gather wood and never returned. When I went in after him the next day, I found his axe, his clothing, and the necklace I had made for him at the age of six. He had not taken it off since I had given it to him and that's when I knew he was dead." The fox on her shoulder whimpered sadly and the three men twitched. Each of them had forgotten her strange pet.

"Although as I grieved in the woods where my father had vanished, this fox came to me. He was not afraid of me, nor I of him, and when I left the woods he came with me. He has journeyed with me since that day, although when we enter towns he sits on my shoulder for his own safety." Lorita smiled and stroked the fox affectionately.

"He's a beautiful creature," Jakob observed. "Does he have a name?"

"Baldwinn," Lorita answered.

Jakob nodded approvingly. "That's a good name."

"It was also my father's name," Lorita added and smiled as the fox nudged her cheek with its muzzle.

Wilhelm looked at the fox and noticed that there was a pendant hung around its throat. He leaned in to see it more closely, trying to make out the design on the pendant, but the fox lifted its hackles and growled. "Not friendly," he mumbled, leaning back in his chair.

Lorita lifted a hand and patted the fox's head, trying to soothe it. Baldwinn continued to stare at him furiously but quit snarling. "He is a very good judge of character, Mister Grimm." Lorita continued to stare at him for long moments after she finished speaking, her black eyes drilling into him with piercing accuracy.

Wilhelm squirmed slightly under her gaze, but more than unease he felt a growing anger welling up inside him. Who was this insolent girl to come here, interrupt his celebrations with her stories, and continual insult him in front of his friends? What was her problem? What made her so special that she could come and ridicule someone of his calibre After all he had been through, didn't he deserve some amount of respect, not incessant scorns from fanciful children?

"I should be-a going," Cavaldi said suddenly. While Wilhelm turned to the distraction, Lorita kept her gaze on the elder Grimm. "I have-a much work to do in the morning. It was good to see-a you Grimm-ies again. And to meet-a you, signorina Lorita."

"Likewise, Mister – " Lorita stopped, a queer smile on her face. "My apologies, but it seems I have yet to catch your name."

"Signor Mercurio Cavaldi," the Italian said with a slight bow.

"Cavaldi?" Lorita inquired. "The torturer?"

"In-a the past," Cavaldi assured her. "My career-a has changed."

"Glad to hear it," the young woman smiled. "Well it was a pleasure to make your acquaintance, signor Cavaldi."

"_Buona sera_, signorina." Cavaldi inclined his head one last time and then departed.

"Unfortunately I must leave as well," Jakob sighed. "I promised Angelika I wouldn't be too late."

"I will come as well," Wilhelm said quickly.

"Thank you for your story, miss," Jakob said to Lorita, ignoring his brother. "It was an enchanting tale. Good-night."

"Good-night, Messrs. Grimm," Lorita replied, curtsying slightly in Jakob direction but avoiding looking at Wilhelm. The elder Grimm inclined his head but said nothing. In seconds he was at the inn doors and had vanished into the night.

"I must apologize for my brother," Jakob said awkwardly, eyeing the closed door shortly before turning to Lorita. "I don't know what was with him tonight. He's not usually so brisk, at least not with anyone but me."

"No apology needed," Lorita replied, "and if one was needed it would be from him, not you. Meaning no offence of course."

"Of course," Jakob echoed. This girl's logic was alien to him. "Good-night." With that he exited the inn to find Wilhelm standing outside, waiting for him. Wilhelm's hands were jammed into his pits, attempting to stave off the cold that had come with the moonrise. He looked especially grumpy.

"Took you long enough," the elder Grimm complained. They started together down the long road homeward.

"What was your problem tonight, Will?" Jakob asked abruptly. Wilhelm didn't answer, head bent against the bitter night chill. "Why don't you like Lorita? I had thought you would be interested in her story, now that you're writing your own."

"Do I need a reason for everything?" Wilhelm grumbled. This caught Jakob unawares; Wilhelm was constantly looking for reason behind everything. "And who said that I didn't like her?"

"You weren't very subtle about it," Jakob replied simply. "Was it because of her story?"

"Why can't you let it drop, Jake?" Wilhelm exclaimed, stopping suddenly in the middle of the road. Jakob halted as well and faced his brother, startled.

"It was rude, the way you treated her," Jakob answered, his voice rising likewise. "I want to know why."

"She's just another faerie tale!" Wilhelm bellowed. "She's another story, drawing you in like they all do. They can't all be true, Jake! We know better than anyone that lies like these can be conceived easily."

"And we know better than anyone that they can also be true," Jakob cried, his voice trembling. "Are you still trying to deny what happened in the forest?"

"How could I, Jake?" Wilhelm asked loudly. "Damn it, I almost died in there. How could I deny that?"

Jakob flinched, the guilt that was always brimming beneath the surface suddenly surging forward away. It was Jakob's hand that had driven the knife into his brother's heart. When the queen's magic had forced them to face each other, Wilhelm had trusted Jakob to fight it. Jakob had tried, but the power proved to be too strong and it had nearly cost his brother's life.

Wilhelm was surprised to see tears glinting on Jakob's cheeks. Did he really care that much about his feelings toward Lorita? That couldn't be it; there had to be more to it.

"Jakob, what is this about?" Wilhelm asked gently. Jakob removed his glasses and rubbed his wet cheeks. "This isn't about the girl anymore, is it?"

Like a dejected child, Jakob shook his head. As he opened his mouth to speak however, Wilhelm groaned and his hand shot to his chest, directly above his heart. Forgetting his problems, Jakob rushed to Wilhelm's side and placed a reassuring hand on his shoulder.

"Will? What's the matter?" Jakob asked, slightly frantic. Wilhelm shook his head, hand pressed against his chest where, beneath his shirt, he could feel the knotted scar. It felt as though a red-hot spear had been thrust into his heart, burning the old wound open. The pain continued to intensify, coming in great waves, each stronger than the last. Wilhelm finally summoned up enough breath to gasp and collapsed to his knees, clawing at his chest.

"Will, what is it? Jakob asked. Wilhelm continued to clasp his hand over his chest. Hoping to find an answer, Jakob gripped Wilhelm's tunic and, with a wrenching noise, tore it open. The scar over Wilhelm's heart was swollen and glowed bright white. Wilhelm had clawed furrows in his flesh and thin tendrils of blood began to stain his skin.

"We need to get you to a doctor," Jakob said quickly. "This isn't right." Filled with a strength he didn't possess, Jakob lifted one of Wilhelm's arms over his shoulder and hoisted the elder Grimm to his feet. Wilhelm was nearly incapable of independent movement so Jakob half-walked, half-dragged his brother down the street.

Wilhelm found it difficult to breathe through the pain. Soon his mind began to get fuzzy and his vision clouded. A few steps later, his legs gave out underneath him and he slumped against Jakob's side. With the unexpected weight Jakob overbalanced and they both fell to the ground in a heap.

"This isn't going to work," Jakob mumbled to himself, not even noting how badly his voice and body were shaking. "We need help." He looked desperately around the deserted street. What was he expecting? It was well into the early hours of the morning. Unwilling to leave his brother for even a moment he did the only other thing he could think of.

"_HELP_!" Jakob wailed. He continued to scream into the night sky, hope filling his chest as he saw a few lights ignite behind the nearby curtains. Abruptly something grasped his arm in a tight, claw-like grip. Jakob glanced down to find Wilhelm clinging to his forearm, eyes locked on his face.

"Will? What is it?" Jakob asked, removing the hand from his arm and clasping it tightly in his own. Wilhelm kept opening his mouth to speak but every time he did the pain in his heart strengthened and no sound escaped his lips.

"Jake." The word came out as a gasp but Jakob could tell that his brother was trying to tell him something important. Wilhelm took a deep breath. "Sorry," he said shortly.

"Sorry? What for?" Jakob asked.

"Beans," Wilhelm said, a faint smile covering his face before it was chased away by another spasm in his chest.

"Don't be sorry, Will," Jakob said, his body quivering with sobs.

"May not show it…" he stopped as convulsions tormented his body. Finally they abated and he started again. "Not show, but I - love –"

The most horrible attack yet seized Wilhelm and his back arched, bowing his body up off the ground. He fought for breath as an iron fist seemed to close around his heart, pressing the ghost of the blade deeper. Faintly, as though from a great distance, he could hear Jakob's terrified voice and the murmur of others. Wilhelm's vision turned black, his thinking became sluggish, and he felt himself slipping away from consciousness. An enormous pressure lifted from him, releasing him from the prison of his body...

Jakob began shouting Wilhelm's name hysterically as he saw his sibling's eyes slide out of focus. Wilhelm's body began relaxing, although the scar on his chest continued to shine malevolently. When Wilhelm went limp in his brother's arms, his eyes peering pointlessly at the sky, Jakob felt his own heart stop in his chest.

"Will?" Jakob asked, unwilling to accept what he was seeing. He placed a hand on Wilhelm's chest, praying for some sign of life, but the heart within his chest was still. The dark truth began to sink in as Jakob gazed at the still face of his older brother. Wilhelm was gone.

Jakob's grief was far beyond tears. His chest felt empty, as if his heart had simply disappeared. He lifted a shaking hand and gently closed Wilhelm's sightless eyes. Then he cradled Wilhelm's body to his own, rocking on his heels. Behind him, he could hear the villagers who had come to help him, milling around and murmuring to each other.

What had happened? Jakob couldn't figure what had caused this. It must have been something about the scar, the one the mirror queen had left on him. _Not just her,_ the dark side of Jakob's conscious reminded him. _You contributed as much, if not _more so_, than she did._"

A faint hiss reached Jakob's ears, but it didn't immediately register in his languid mind. It was a full minute later before the realisation sunk in, and Jakob suddenly looked down at Wilhelm's face in disbelief. The older Grimm's lips were slightly parted.

"Impossible," Jakob gasped. He laid hsi brother's body back on the ground, feeling his hopes rise despite his best effort to remain calm. Tentatively, Jakob held his hand above Wilhelm's mouth. He felt the slightest brush of air against his palm. Wilhelm was still breathing.

Grateful tears flooded Jakob's eyes and he began sobbing uncontrollably. One of the nearest villagers knelt at his side and placed a comforting hand on his shoulder. Jakob turned to look at the man and he saw the older man recoil at the wild smile on the younger Grimm's face.

"Mister Grimm?" the man asked cautiously.

"He's alive," Jakob said slowly and then the truth of the words sank in. "He's alive!"


	4. Haunting Dreams

**Chapter Three**

_Haunting Dreams_

_._

_Jakob stood in his house, his eyes focused directly ahead of him. Wilhelm was stretched out on the bed in the corner, his face still and eyes shut. Jakob approached his brother's side, fearing that Death had finally caught up with him. As knelt at the bedside, Wilhelm's eyes snapped open. _

_"Jake?" Wilhelm asked softly. Jakob smiled, pleased that Wilhelm was well. Then suddenly before his eyes, Wilhelm began to change. His skin paled drastically and his eyes dulled from blue to dusty grey, as though layers of cobwebs had been spread over them. __His breath came in wheezing gasps and he shook horribly. "I'm dying, Jake."_

"_No, you can't be," Jakob argued. "You were fine just a second ago. This can't be, Will. This is one of your faerie tales."_

"_No, Jake," Wilhelm responded harshly. "I am going to die. Unless you can save me. I don't want to die. Can you save me, Jake?"_

"_I don't know how," Jakob said._

"_Beans, brother," Wilhelm informed him. His voice had lost its quake and was commanding and cruel. "Do you have the beans? The magic beans. That's the only way you can save me. Beans."_

"_But they don't work, Will," Jakob cried. "They didn't work."_

"_How would you know?" Wilhelm asked mockingly. "You never did try them, did you? Maybe if you had tried them, Lotte would have lived. It's your fault Lotte is dead. And now it will be your fault when I die too. The only way to save me is beans, and you don't have any. Beans."_

"_Beans," Jakob echoed. "Beans, beans, beans." He began calling out, hoping somebody passing the house would hear him and bring him the beans. "Beans. Beans. Beans!"_

"_Jakob?" another voice asked. But Jakob couldn't be distracted; he needed to get the beans. "Jakob? Jake?"_

A gentle hand touched his shoulder and Jakob sat up with a muffled scream. He was drenched in cold sweat and shaking all over. He looked to his side and saw Angelika sitting beside him in bed, her eyes wary.

"Jake, are you all right?" she asked delicately. "You were tossing again. I left you to it until you began crying and talking in your sleep."

"Talking?" Jakob asked. He lifted a hand to his face and felt warm tears streaming down his cheeks. He hastily rubbed them away with the back of his wrist.

"You kept saying 'beans.' Are you ill?" Angelika asked, rubbing the back of his neck calmly.

"Yes. I mean no. I'm fine," Jakob corrected. "I just had a bad dream is all." Jakob climbed out of bed and quickly pulled clothes on over his underwear, and then strode out to the main room, to the cot in the corner beside the mantle.

Wilhelm was lying, still as death, in his bed. His ailment was an enigma no one had ever heard of before; he was breathing and appeared only to be sleeping, but his heart did not beat. Two nights had gone by and he still showed no sign of waking.

Jakob sighed and sat in the chair that was pulled up beside Wilhelm's bed. He took up the damp rag and bowl of water from the bedside table and quickly soaked the cloth. Then he lifted it and wrung it over Wilhelm's mouth, letting the water drip into his brother's parted mouth. Jakob grimaced with relief when he saw Wilhelm's throat move as he swallowed the water.

"Are you going to be all right?" Angelika asked, startling Jakob, who hadn't heard her approach.

"I'll be fine," Jakob answered, taking her hand in his own. "But it's not my health that I'm worried about." Jakob gazed miserably at his brother's sleeping face. "You need sleep though," Jakob said, turning to look back at his wife. Dark rings were forming beneath her eyes from the strain of caring for both her child and Wilhelm.

"Will you come to bed soon?" Angelika asked. "You can't help him any right now, and it won't do any of us good if you fall ill."

"Soon," Jakob replied gently. "I just want to sit with him for a while. Besides I won't be able to sleep right away."

"That bad of a dream?" Angelika asked worriedly.

"Just dark memories," Jakob said quietly. "Good-night, briar rose." Angelika kissed him lightly on the cheek and then reluctantly walked back to the bed. Jakob waited for long moments until he heard the deep breaths of sleep from her before he relaxed.

"Will, what is this curse that ails you?" Jakob asked softly, gently touching his brother's brow. The skin was cool to the touch, not burning with fever as Jakob expected. Wilhelm's face twitched slightly at the contact.

"Tell me what I have to do to save you," Jakob demanded quietly. He took one of Wilhelm's hands in his own, holding it for his own comfort more than anything. "I'm so scared, Will. You always say that this supernatural busy is my forte, but I have no clue what's going on." Jakob swallowed against the lump in his throat, fighting back the tears. "I was so scared when I thought you were dead, Will. I've thought before that maybe I was grown enough to live on my own, but I still need you." Jakob pressed Wilhelm's knuckles against his brow. "You're my brother and I love you."

Jakob stayed like that at his brother's side until fatigue overtook him again and he slipped back into a dreamless sleep.

. . . . .

Wilhelm also slumbered in his comatose state, kept unconscious by his stopped heart as dark visions taunted his mind.

_A swirling mass of black birds filled the sky, muting the moon's light. The chilled night air nipped at the bare skin of Wilhelm's torso. Before him stood a stone tower with a single window near the top._

"_Wilhelm." A haunting voice issued from the window. "Come to me, Wilhelm."_

_At the base of the tower an archway appeared, revealing a winding staircase. Wilhelm hurried through the arch and pounded up the steps. His bare feet made little noise on the flat stones, and the world seemed to spin before him as he continued upward in an eternal spiral. The seductive voice continued to call for him, and each time it spoke his name Wilhelm felt a growing eagerness for the stairs to end so that he could reach his goal, that voice that he remembered only too well._

___After what felt like an infinity the staircase finished in a flat landing. At the edge of the landing was a golden door, decorated with small circular mirrors. Wilhelm did not even have to touch the door; it swung open of its own accord as he reached it, admitting him to a tower room._

___The room was not as Wilhelm had remembered it. Before, it had been heavily decorated with gold plating and elaborate tapestries around ornate furniture. Now it was nearly empty, the grey stone walls clearly visible. The only adornment was an inlaid mirror against the far wall._

___Near the mirror stood a handsome young man, a silver band resting on his brow. His clothes were plain but visible through his shirt was a golden circle stuck against the skin of his chest. With a slight twinge of fear Wilhelm recognised it as the Mirror Queen's enchanted stake. Almost instantly his attention was diverted from the man, and as his eyes clasped this new being he felt his alarm evaporate._

___The queen herself was standing in the centre of the tower. She was still dressed in her extravagant gown although the crown on her head was missing, allowing her lengthy curls to hang free. She smiled fondly at Wilhelm, and the Grimm felt his breath catch in his chest as she beckoned for him to approach._

_"__I am free again, Wilhelm," the queen said sweetly, stroking the side of his face. "Do you still love me?"_

___Wilhelm felt himself struck momentarily dumb as he struggled to make his tongue form words, nodding to stall for time. "You are the fairest of them all," he finally managed._

"_How wonderful you are to me," the queen simpered as she batted her long eyelashes. "I am so pleased to have you with me again. No man could replace you in my heart."_

"_Who is he?" Wilhelm asked, gesturing to the man near the mirror with a hurt note in his voice._

"_Merely a servant, my sweet," the queen said comfortingly. In her hands appeared a shining silver crown. At her signal Wilhelm knelt and the queen placed it on his head. "You are my true prince, the valiant Sir Wilhelm."_

_Wilhelm swelled with pride. He was a knight _and_ prince in the queen's court. Such a privilege was unbelievable!_

"_We have only one more task to complete, my prince," the queen said, placing one of her hands on Wilhelm's bare chest. "We must only be rid of that one who hurt me the most. That cursed brother, Jakob."_

"_No!" Wilhelm shouted. "No, you can't." He stumbled away from the queen, unable to take his astounded gaze off her. How could she turn on him so suddenly? She loved him!_

"_But he hurt me, Wilhelm," the queen sobbed, her eyes filled with silvery tears._

"_He's my brother," Wilhelm protested. "I can't! He's my brother." His back collided with where the door should have been but only cold stone touched his skin._

"_Jakob will die," the queen said fiercely. "You shan't be able to stop it, Wilhelm. You are my servant now."_

"_I will serve you no more," Wilhelm answered, sweeping the band from his head and tossing it at her feet._

"_There is one chain binding you to me that you cannot break," the queen hissed. Wilhelm felt a sharp pain in his chest and shouted in anguish. When he glanced down he saw the queen's cursed stake protruding from his skin. He grasped it in his hands, but no matter how hard he pulled he could not remove it. Soon scarlet blood had stained his skin halfway up his forearms and his slippery fingers could no longer even grip the polished gold._

"_You are my eternal servant, Wilhelm," the queen informed him, laughing wickedly. "And soon Jakob will find his eternal repose."_

"_No! No, you can't. Please, not Jakob."_

"_You will help me, whether you wish it or not," the mirror queen proclaimed. "Not even brotherly love will save you this time. At your hands and my power, Jakob will die!"_

"_Take me in his stead. Please, you can't. Not Jakob. No! Not Jakob!"_

Wilhelm shot up in bed suddenly, tears in his eyes and still screaming his pleas. Jakob was startled from his sleep by Wilhelm's movement and it took him several startled seconds to comprehend what he was seeing. Wilhelm was awake!

"Will, you are well?" Jakob asked in disbelief.

"Release me you demon," Wilhelm muttered feverishly to something only he could see, frantically trying to grasp something above his heart. "You can't be back. I won't serve you! I won't let you kill Jake!"

"Will, what is this?" Jakob asked and touched his brother's shoulder. The contact finally caught Wilhelm's attention and he took in the sight of Jakob, tired and worn at his bedside.

"Jake?" Wilhelm asked in confusion. "No, where am I? I was in her tower."

"You're at my house," Jakob said gently, concerned by Wilhelm's strange behaviour "You've been ill."

"No, that's not right," Wilhelm argued, shaking his head. "She took me to her tower." Wilhelm suddenly turned fearful again and grasped Jakob's shoulders tightly. "She's back Jakob! The queen, she's back! She's cursed me and she wants to kill you!"

"Impossible," Jakob said, shaking his head. "She's dead, Will. It was just a dream."

"No, it wasn't," Wilhelm insisted. "It was so real. I felt it all. She spoke to me and she trapped me with her spells. She said that she was going to kill you!"

"Will, you've been ill," Jakob replied, gently pressing Wilhelm back into the cot. He was disturbed to discover that under Wilhelm's chest there was still no tangible heartbeat, even with how agitated he was. "It was simply a dream."

"A dream?" Wilhelm asked thoughtfully. The longer he was awake the more this idea seemed to make sense. He ran his hand over his chest and this time could not feel the golden circle embedded against his skin. His arms were also scrubbed clean, no sign of blood visible on them. Perhaps he _was_ only over-reacting. "Yeah, that's it. It was only a dream."

"Exactly," Jakob agreed. He hurried to fetch a glass of water for Wilhelm. "Only a dream."


	5. Dead Conscience, Living Pride

**Author's Note: **

On the off chance that anyone actually reads this story...

The original chapter four was somehow accidentally saved over during one of my old revisions, and I only just recently noticed while transposing these stories over to another site. The later chapters have all been edited to fix that error, but the problem here is that the original chapter four is now missing. I don't have it here on the site and I've lost my old hard copy, since this story was written so long ago. I am in the process of trying to re-write a new version of the chapter (piecing what actually happens together from the other chapters since I don't remember most of it) but that might take a while. Until then, here's the important bullet points needed to understand the rest of the story.

- Cavaldi leaves Marbaden after seeing that Wilhelm is awake and relatively healthy. Jakob accompanies him to the edge of town, leaving Wilhelm home with Angelika and Aurora.

- Wilhelm falls asleep.

- Lorita comes by the house, looking for Jakob because she wants to hear stories about what happened in the Forest.

- On her arrival, it's discovered that Lorita and Angelika are old school mates from the school Angelika and her sister's attended until their father's death.

- Lorita comes in to wait for Jakob's return while Angelika slips into the next room to feed Aurora.

- While Angelika is in the other room, Lorita finds herself examining Wilhelm, who is still asleep. She grudgingly admits that she finds him attractive, and is curious about a necklace he wears - a thin golden chain bearing a locket and a child-size ring.

- Wilhelm begins to suffer from a severe nightmare. In his sleep he begins clawing at his chest, attempting to remove the queen's stake from his heart, and scratches furrows into his skin.

- Lorita tries to rouse him gently, only to have him suddenly wake in a panic and fall out of the bed on top of her. They scramble away from each other.

- Wilhelm makes a waspish comment about Lorita helping him, and she replies that she still has a conscience and couldn't leave him to suffer. She also smugly points out that this makes her the better person, because she didn't let her personal dislike of him stop her from being a good person. She takes a seat at the table and leaves him to ponder this.

- End Chapter.

I will hopefully have a newly rewritten chapter up soon, but I hope this helps until then.

... Annie


	6. Storytellers

**Chapter Five**

_Storytellers_

Wilhelm sat dumbfounded on the floor until he felt Lorita's gaze on him again, spurring him into action. Shame burning red on his face, he dragged himself to the bed and climbed back onto the mattress. Seated once more, he looked down at his hands and his brow suddenly furrowed in confusion. His fingertips were coated in a sticky layer of blood. He glanced over his body nervously for the source and he spotted the scratches on his bare chest, each one bearing a slick overlay of crimson. Several thin tendrils had rolled down his skin in zagging patterns.

Confused by these unfounded new injuries, he quickly grabbed the water and cloth from where Jakob had left them on his bedside table the night before. He winced slightly as he dabbed the wounds gently, removing the scarlet stains. Lorita watched the whole scene passively until he finally set the tools back on the nightstand.

"Where did you get that necklace?" she asked abruptly. Startled, Wilhelm clasped the pendant against his breast protectively.

"From a girl I loved very much," he answered shortly, not meeting the curious woman's eyes.

"Both of them?" she inquired. Wilhelm nodded. "Where is she?"

"Gone," Wilhelm responded simply but the emotion in his voice betrayed his meaning. Despite herself, Lorita felt a pang of sympathy for the rude man. She knew how it felt to lose a loved one and, judging by the defensive way that Wilhelm clung to the necklace, his whole heart had belonged to the maiden.

"I'm sorry," Lorita mumbled quietly. "If you don't mind, how did she die?"

"Scarlet fever," Wilhelm said flatly, all feeling rapidly draining from his speech. Turning his head down to hide his expression, Wilhelm's mind drifted aimlessly into his memories and, almost without thinking, he opened the locket. In each side was a small and faded black-and-white photograph. The right hand showed a handsome man and a young woman in a flowing dress. The woman was seated and the man stood behind her, a hand on each shoulder. Wilhelm smiled slightly as he ran his thumb over the photograph of his parent's wedding.

The picture on the left was of three children, and had been taken many years later. The farthest back was a seven-year-old Wilhelm, his hair as untidy as always. Wilhelm's right hand rested on the shoulder of a five-year-old Jakob, his little, gold-rimmed glasses perched on his nose. And in the very centre of the photograph...

Wilhelm's breath caught at the sight. A cherub face surrounded by spiralling curls, nearly three-year-old Lotte Grimm beamed up at her eldest brother adoringly.

Wilhelm gazed in agony at his left hand; the hand that had clasped Lotte's own so protectively; the hand that had failed. No more than a year after this photograph was taken, Lotte had died.

Wilhelm jumped as he felt something touch his arm. He glanced down and saw Lorita's sable fox standing on its hind legs in front of him, one small paw placed on Wilhelm's forearm in a very human gesture of comforting. "Fate works in mysterious ways, Wilhelm," Lorita said gently from her seat at the kitchen table. "Do not drown in your losses but treasure your gains." Lorita emitted a weak laugh. "That's what my father always used to tell me when I was upset."

The wooden door suddenly swung open, startling all of the room's occupants. The fox darted up to its perch on Lorita's shoulder as they turned to the door. Jakob came in, removing his familiar duster and setting it on a chair near the door.

"Will, you're awake," Jakob said in surprise. "I thought I told you to rest."

"You did," Wilhelm replied grumpily. He didn't like being bossed around by his younger brother. "In the great length of time you have been gone, I have already rested and awoken again."

Jakob sighed at his brother's stubbornness and then his eyes fell on Lorita. "Oh, Miss Lorita, my apologies. I didn't see you there."

"Apologies accepted," Lorita said kindly, a fey smile dancing across her pale lips. "I was simply looking for someone to tell me about the tales of the forest and her queen. A girl from town directed me to this house, saying the family here knew it the best."

"That much is truth," Jakob laughed hollowly. He pulled up a chair across from the blonde girl and asked, "What is it that you wanted to know?"

"Well I've heard strange tales about a witch that lived in the forest in a tower for five hundred years, and who she was kidnapping the girls of the village, and I thought it sounded like an intriguing tale," she said simply. "I've always enjoyed a good story."

"Then you definitely came to the right place," Wilhelm chortled, leaning back against the wall behind him. "The tale is most certainly a fantastical one, and none can tell it better than Jakob." He paused thoughtfully and then added, "Except perhaps me, of course."

Jakob and Lorita both made noises of exasperation and rolled their eyes. Lorita returned her attention to the younger Grimm. "Mister Grimm, could you please tell me your tale?"

"Why of course," Jakob said excitedly. "I'm always happy to tell it to a captive audience." Jakob cleared his throat lightly and then began, his voice deepening just slightly and his face growing more intense as it did every time he recited a story. "It all began over five years ago, while our country was still under the reign of the French. Will and I were staying in a tavern in Karlstadt after ridding the millhouse of a 'witch.' Suddenly a French commander and his entourage burst in, interrupting our gaiety."

Jakob instantly launched himself into a detailed narrative of every event that had occurred since they had been captured in the middle of the night by Cavaldi. Having had a considerable amount of practice in reciting the tale, he was able to continue easily without faltering and his descriptions were accompanied by animated gestures and expressions.

Even though Wilhelm had heard the story enough times - on top of having actually _lived_ it - he still felt himself drawn into Jakob's entrancing visions. Lorita was infinitely more spellbound, and she sat gazing at the storyteller with attentive eyes, gasping and laughing and even half-screaming a few times. Angelika returned to the room with Aurora shortly after the account had begun and watched her husband with a contented smile at the rapt enjoyment on his face.

As Jakob's words created fantastic images in Lorita's mind, Wilhelm viewed the realistic visions in his mind. He clearly recalled the swollen belly of the horse as it rode off with Elsie; the sleeping body of Sasha floating in the pond; the sickening transformations of the snarling wolf into the axe-wielding hunter; the grotesquely disfigured and severed heads of their dead companions tied to the lids of baskets on either side of a Frenchman's horse; the enchanted knives forcing the brothers to face each other as they had play-acted many times before, but this time so much more dangerous...

"The queen's magic was laced into the metal of the blades and no matter how hard we fought, our blades were each determined to enter the heart of the other," Jakob said dramatically, pretending to be wresting against his own wrist. "Will to release my wrist, believing that my knowledge of magic would save us both, but her power was too great and, as much as I fought it, she won over. The blade slid into Wilhelm's heart as easily as if into its own sheath."

Jakob never had difficulty retelling this part of the story in all its horrific reality, purely because as he told it he felt as if he were reciting the tale of fictional characters. It never occurred to him until long after that it was actually the story of his own life that he was recounting. Wilhelm, on the other hand, rubbed the heel of his hand against his chest, where the absence of his heartbeat was all-too-obvious beneath the skin.

Nearly two long hours had passed before Jakob drew to the conclusion of the tale.

"As all of the sleeping girls awoke I returned to Will's side. Even though the spell over everyone else had broken, he did not stir." Forgetting that Wilhelm was sitting in room with her, Lorita gasped in horror, one hand covering her mouth.

Smiling slightly, Jakob continued. " 'Perhaps another kiss?' Cavaldi suggested. Bracing myself I knelt at Wilhelm's side and leaned towards him." Wilhelm saw a faint blush creep into his brother's face at this part, as it always did, and a smirk crossed his own mouth. "No more than a few inches above his face I heard a faint grumble. 'Not you,' Will had muttered and then cocked an eyebrow at me without opening his eyes. Angelika swept to his side and as she leaned to kiss him, Will _magically _awoke."

Lorita laughed and applauded. "That was a wonderful story," she complimented. "You are a very talented storyteller, Jakob."

"I'm glad you enjoyed it," Jakob responded. Worn from his spirited retelling, he collapsed back into his chair - which he'd risen from at some point in his eagerness - and gratefully drained the cup of water Angelika offered him. "You are a traveller," he said suddenly. "Surely you must have heard some good stories on your journey."

"I can think of no good tales, but I did just recently visit Hamelin and heard the strangest news," Lorita replied. Jakob nodded her on enthusiastically; he enjoyed listening to tales as much as he loved telling them, the more unrealistic the better. "Well I was told that the village had been plagued by a horrible rat infestation. The beasts were ruining their crop stores and many people fell ill. Then one day a young man, dressed in patched clothing, came into town and claimed to be a rat-catcher. The villagers offered to pay him a schilling for the head of each rat that he killed and he accepted.

"That night as the villagers lay down to sleep, the man began playing a song on a flute and every rat followed him out of town and into the nearby river, where they all drowned. But the next day, the villagers refused to pay him such a large fee for only playing a flute. They told him they would pay him for each rat's head and since all the heads were on the bottom of the river they would pay him nothing.

"As they were all in church the following day, the piper began playing his flute and every child in town followed him into a hidden cave in the surrounding country. He returned to the village and refused to return the children until they paid his fees. Finally relenting, they paid him nearly one-hundred-thousand schillings and when he put his flute to his lips again the village's children returned. Then the piper walked out of town and was never seen again."

"Amazing," Jakob breathed. "To think of someone controlling any creature with only music. What a skill that would be!" Wilhelm rolled his eyes; unlike Jakob, he wasn't quite so willing to believe that _all_ hints of magic were true. More often than not, they were frauds as much as the Grimms had been when they had started.

"Well I won't be wasting your time any longer," Lorita said, standing. "Thank you so much for your story, and I was so glad to see you again, Angelika."

"Will you be staying in town or are you going to leave again?" Angelika asked hurriedly.

"I haven't decided yet, but I think I may stay in Marbaden for a while." Lorita smiled softly. "It does me good to see a friend."

_Joy,_ Wilhelm thought to himself sarcastically.


	7. The Wolf and the Woodsman

**Chapter Six**

_The Wolf and the Woodsman_

"Papa!" The little, dusty-blonde haired girl stumbled over her feet as she charged through the grass. Jakob sat up, concern in his eyes, until he saw the ecstatic grin on the girl's face. Two years had changed both father and daughter in many ways. Jakob had transformed well into the role of a parent, although with a definite soft spot for his green-eyed girl. Aurora had grown from an infant into a toddler, proving to be adventurous, friendly, and remarkably bright for her age.

"Papa!" the girl called again, and with a laugh she fell into his lap. Grinning, she perched herself on his outstretched legs and stared at him while she twirled a white flower between her fingers. With the forefinger of her other hand she beckoned him closer. Jakob leaned towards her, expecting some whispered gibberish meant to be a profound secret. Instead she lunged forward and placed a kiss on his nose and then scurried away from him, giggling as if she had achieved some great feat.

"What do you think you're doing?" Jakob asked with a laugh. Then his face grew more serious. "You dare to place a kiss upon the nose of such a horrible villain? No one kisses the wolf." Jakob climbed onto his hands and knees, making Aurora shriek playfully and back away further. "Tell me, little snack, who for is this precious flower? I should greatly like it for my own."

"No," Aurora cried, cradling the flower delicately in her chubby hands. "Ma."

"A flower for your mother?" Jakob's voice dropped an octave and took on a growling effect. "How sweet. You would make a lovely meal. And then your flower will be mine!"

"No," Aurora cried again and raced away through the grass. Jakob barrelled after her on all fours, growling and cursing her wicked speed. After a long bout of running, Aurora found herself at a dead end against one of the many straw-covered huts dotting the fields outside of town. Aurora spun around to face her opponent, searching desperately for a route of escape but finding none.

"I promise I will eat you quickly so it doesn't hurt," Jakob growled, moving closer to the cornered girl.

"No," Aurora said fearfully, although her eyes were lit playfully.

"And from the shadows stepped a courageous woodsman, shining axe clasped in his hand." The deep voice startled both Aurora and Jakob as its owner stepped up next to the latter. "'I will save you from this horrid beast,' the woodsman said to the young maiden. Then he hefted the axe," the newcomer lifted his hands above his head and suddenly brought them down till they connected with the exposed back of Jakob's neck, "and with a precise strike the wolf was slain and the young girl saved."

Trying to suppress a smile, Jakob fell over onto his side as Aurora rushed into the open arms of her saviour.

"Uncle Will," Aurora called happily, wrapping her short arms around Wilhelm's neck.

"Good to see you too, beautiful," Wilhelm replied with a hearty laugh. "What about you, wolf? No hug for your brother?"

"Why should I?" Jakob retorted. "After all you did just chop off my head and steal my meal and daughter."

"Don't hold a grudge," Wilhelm advised with a smirk. "This may become a common occurrence so you might as well get used to it." Jakob laughed as he rose to his feet and the brothers embraced.

"Welcome back," Jakob said, catching Aurora as she leapt from Wilhelm's arms into his. "How was the journey?"

"Boring and lonely," Wilhelm replied as the brother's started back towards town. Aurora rode on her father's back, still idly twirling the flower she'd picked as she listened. "Should have made you come with me so I'd have someone to talk too."

"That bad, huh?" Jakob chuckled. "Thought I annoyed you too much to travel with anymore." Wilhelm shrugged non-committally "Did you meet anyone interesting or hear any good stories while you were away?"

"Yes and yes," Wilhelm answered. "But you'll have to wait until we get back to your house before I tell any of them. I'm exhausted." Jakob sighed with anticipation but didn't argue. Wilhelm had been travelling for the last three weeks and Jakob knew he must be tired.

As they passed through the town many of its inhabitants greeted Wilhelm affectionately, confessing their joy at his return. Wilhelm took all the attention in stride but did not linger to talk very long, looking forward to a comfortable chair and decent meal. When they finally reached Jakob's house Angelika greeted Wilhelm briefly before ushering him inside and into a chair at the table, where a bowl of stew already awaited him.

"Oh you are too good to me," Wilhelm said as he eagerly spooned the warm food into his mouth.

"Don't I know it," Angelika smiled in response as she helped Aurora with her own bowl of stew. Wilhelm ate quickly and then settled back in his chair, grinning with contentment.

"So, what tales have you heard?" Jakob asked enthusiastically. He had been waiting impatiently since he had first seen his brother to hear these stories.

"Impatient little boy, aren't you?" Wilhelm asked with a grin, making Jakob scowl stubbornly. Aurora giggled into her soup. "Fine, I'll tell you, don't pout."

"I'm not pouting," Jakob countered, pride stung.

"Do you want to hear my stories or not?" Wilhelm asked and Jakob fell silent. "That's what I thought. Well most of my travels were boring, moving from town to town, enjoying scenery and mingling with the villagers. But in a much larger town farther north a powerful lord was holding a magnificent, three-night ball for his son. He invited every girl in town and many other nearby towns to attend, hoping that his son and heir might find a bride at this event."

"Did you go to the ball?" Jakob asked even though he knew the answer already.

"Of course, do you think I would miss something like this? Hundreds of women, all single and many very beautiful." Wilhelm drifted into pleasant memories momentarily, an almost lecherous grin on his face, before continuing. "Well at this ball the young lord danced with nearly every girl, choosing none of them as his bride. Then suddenly this beautiful girl came in. Like the North Star she was, absolutely breath-taking. Immediately the young lord approached her and they danced the rest of the night, until nearly midnight when she excused herself and left. The same thing transpired the second and third night.

"Well by now the young lord had gotten it in his head that he was going to marry this girl. He chased after her but the only sign of her he found was one of her slippers lying on the ground outside the mansion doors. The young girl has vanished without a trace and no matter how the lord searched he could not locate her."

"Remarkable," Jakob commented, nodding thoughtfully. "Didn't the boy get her name, or even know what town she lived in?"

"No," Wilhelm laughed scornfully. "He was so entranced by her beauty that trivialities such as names apparently didn't seem important. They searched the estate of every wealthy family in the neighbouring towns but they had had no luck by the time I left."

"Sounds like this young lord was a rather senseless one if you ask me," Angelika scoffed.

"Aye, that is a fact that I won't contradict," Wilhelm chortled.

"What brought you back so soon?" Jakob asked suddenly. "We weren't expecting you for at least another week. Did you get that lonely?"

"Well, yes," Wilhelm admitted, "but that's not why I returned." He sighed heavily and leaned forward, placing his elbows on the table. "You know why I left of course," he said, not wanting to repeat such things in front of his young niece.

"Of course," Jakob answered. Nearly every night since his '_swooning spell_,' as he called it, two years ago, Wilhelm had been plagued by horrible nightmares. Finally he had decided that his proximity to the forest might have had something to do with it and left to travel and see if the dreams lessened.

"Well my theory was unbelievably wrong," Wilhelm announced. "It seemed the farther I went the worse it got. It finally got so bad I gave up and began my journey back."

"Strange," Jakob muttered. "I expected them to lessen."

"So did I," Wilhelm agreed heartily. "Proved us both wrong though, didn't it? That's okay though, I think I prefer it this way. These–" Wilhelm paused with a sidelong glance at Aurora, thinking of a better word to use, _"problems_ are keeping me closer to my family. I would miss my beautiful niece if I had to leave here forever."

Aurora looked at him with horrified eyes. "You leavin' f'rever?"

Wilhelm laughed and leaned over to take her hand. "No, I'm not leaving. I don't plan on leaving here again any time soon, if ever. I promise," he added when Aurora still seemed uncertain.

"Good," Aurora said with a nod and then promptly returned her attention to her near empty stew bowl.

"So Will, what was – " Jakob started but he never got any further.

"Papa, tell ma 'bout the wolf," Aurora shouted.

"The wolf?" Angelika asked, shooting a curious glance at her husband. In response, Jakob winked. "Oh, I must hear this story."

Aurora giggled and clambered into Wilhelm's lap. Getting herself comfortable, she snuggled back against her uncle's chest.

Jakob cleared his throat. "Well our sweet little Aurora here was picking flowers for you when suddenly she stumbled across a wolf."

"It was a big wolf," Aurora added eagerly.

"Enormous," Jakob agreed. "Well Aurora tried to be kind and she planted a kiss on the nose of the wolf, but he didn't like that. Deciding that her sweet disposition must make her tastier, the wolf charged after her. Aurora fled and the wolf pursued, running along behind her while–"

"Uncle Will," Aurora said suddenly, forgetting about the story. She turned in her uncle's lap with a confused scowl on her face, and gently placed a hand on his chest. "You don' have a heart."

Jakob and Angelika exchanged nervous glances. Neither of them even knew how it explain it to themselves, let alone to a small child.

"Ah, you've figured out my secret," Wilhelm said with a great amount of bravado. "But now you mustn't tell another soul. It is a dangerous secret but I trust you. Can you keep it?" Eagerly, Aurora nodded. "Alright, well I do have a heart but it doesn't beat like yours. It's frozen still."

"Are you dead?" Aurora asked suspiciously.

"Do I look dead to you?" Wilhelm asked in response, arching an eyebrow. "No, I'm under a spell. This magic makes me completely invincible."

"What's that?" Aurora asked curiously as Jakob laughed aloud at his brother's invention.

"It means I can't die," Wilhelm explained. Aurora gasped, both hands covering her mouth. "Now remember, you can't tell anyone."

"Not tell anyone," Aurora promised.

Wilhelm nodded his head in approval. "Good, now let's let your papa finish his story. I want to hear all about that brave and handsome woodsman. I like that fellow."


	8. Into the Woods

**Chapter Seven**

_Into the Woods_

The adult Grimms sat in a peaceful silence. Angelika had just set Aurora down for a nap so the house was filled with the soundless breath of sleep. All of them were enjoying the comfort of having the family together once more, especially Wilhelm.

"That was some story you fed Aurora," Jakob remarked suddenly, breaking the quiet. A smile graced his features as he glanced sideways at his brother. "You are getting to be quite a storyteller. I never could have dreamt up an excuse like that on the spot."

"If only it was an excuse," Wilhelm said darkly, dragging a hand back through his hair. Jakob and Angelika both looked at him questioningly. "That wasn't exactly a tale I fabricated. It was the truth, at least in part."

"You mean-?" Jakob stopped to sort his thoughts. "How so? Do you mean you really can't-?"

"That I really can't die?" Wilhelm supplied. "Yeah, that's pretty much what I mean."

"How do you know?" Jakob asked suspiciously.

Wilhelm tugged off his shirt, revealing bandages wrapped around his abdomen. Without a word, he slowly began removing the bandages and when the last had fallen away Jakob flinched in disgust and Angelika emitted a noise somewhere between a gasp and a shriek. There was a deep stab wound in his stomach, just below the right side of his ribcage, and crimson blood was visibly lining the inside of it.

"I received this wound three days ago," Wilhelm explained as he began replacing the bandages. "It doesn't bleed, and it hardly hurts. It's just - there."

"How did you come by that?" Jakob asked in horror.

"Simple mistake, really," Wilhelm said, unabashed. "Accepted the overtures of a woman who unfortunately neglected to mention that she was married. Let's just say her husband didn't find much humour in the situation when he came home. And he was a real an unsportsmanly fighter. Ripped me straight out of the bed, and when I tried to defend myself he got offended and whipped out his knife. I tell you when he stabbed me I was so ashamed. I thought I was going to die naked."

"But you didn't die," Jakob said in confusion.

"Good observation," Wilhelm replied with a dry laugh. "Astounded all of us, especially that poor guy who stabbed me. When I stood back up he dropped down in a dead faint. If I hadn't been so confused myself I might have found it funny, which thinking back on it now it really was amusing. I don't exactly know what happened, but I can only assume that it was caused by this." At this Wilhelm gently touched the scar on his chest, above his still heart.

"Of course this isn't the first time I've defied death," he added thoughtfully as he pulled his tunic back on. "Shortly after I left town I fell out of the back of a wagon and cracked my head against a rock. At the time I just assumed I had gotten lucky, but even the doctor said that after he had seen the injury he didn't believe that I would live. But sure enough, four days of sleep later and the gash had almost completely closed itself up, and I was right as rain by the end of the week. There's barely even a scar now."

"Remarkable," Jakob breathed, shaking his head slightly. "It seems that even after her death, the Mirror Queen's enchantments haven't left you."

"I tell you, Jake," Wilhelm said, suddenly very solemn, "she isn't gone. We may have destroyed her mirror, but it just doesn't add up that she would die that easily. Especially not with all this bizarre nonsense that's been happening over the last few years."

"And I will tell you once more, Will, that you are getting paranoid," Jakob said sternly, taking off his glasses and wiping them on his shirt.

"You'd be paranoid too if you didn't have a heartbeat," Wilhelm shot back sulkily, reflexively placing a hand on his chest. "Not just that but these damned dreams. They all tell me the same message, and I've seen them so many times that I could relay them without mistake. I tell you there's something supernatural to this."

"This is quite the reversal, isn't it?" Jakob commented abruptly with a bark of a laugh. "I remember the times when it was I trying to convince you that it was supernatural."

"Yes, and you are just as stubborn as I was then," Wilhelm said but his scowl had lightened ever so slightly.

"Oh I won't deny that it is supernatural," Jakob argued. "I simply think you are too ready to let your fears take hold and aren't looking at the logic. Do you really think that if the queen were alive that she'd have left us alone this long?"

"It must be part of a plan," Wilhelm stated, waving a dismissive hand.

"Yes, perhaps she's trying to turn you against each other with this persistent bickering," Angelika said, startling the brothers. "Please, let's leave such dark matters for another time. The family is all together again. This is a time for celebrating, not fighting."

The brothers eyed her in surprise and then turned to each other. Both of them abruptly broke into laughter, continuing until tears had formed at the corners of both sets of eyes.

"Oh Briar Rose," Jakob said gently as soon as he had regained speech, taking her hand fondly, "you are such a blessing. Where would we be without you?"

"Likely in a shallow grave," Angelika retorted with a smile. Both men erupted into laughter again. Through the noise Angelika caught the faint sound of a knock at the door and she rose to answer it. When she opened the door she was met by the large eyes of a sable fox that was leaning towards her from the shoulder of its owner.

"Hello Baldwinn," Angelika said, fondly patting the head of the fox.

"Hello to you too," Lorita said, mocking offence. Then a smile split her features.

"Come in," Angelika said, stepping back to allow her entrance. Lorita stepped inside and her glance was quickly drawn to the table where the brothers were still laughing.

"Mister Wilhelm," Lorita said in surprise. Wilhelm glanced at her, his shock matching hers. "I heard rumours that you had returned to town, but I didn't know they were true."

"Apparently so," Wilhelm remarked with a slanted smile. "You look well."

Lorita surveyed Wilhelm's face shortly before responding, "I wish I could say the same. You look as if you haven't slept in months."

"An observation that might bear some truth," Wilhelm answered. While Lorita's blatant honesty still annoyed him at times, he had gotten used to it and learned to accept it as just another part of her personality. He looked her over and found little difference in here. She had not grown more than an inch or two since they had met, and her braided hair was still as long as ever. Her eyes stared back at him with that deep maturity that sharply contrasted with her youthful face and turned most people off.

"How were your travels?" she asked, impervious to his searching gaze.

"Fair enough," Wilhelm lied. He was not about to share the details of his enlightening and personal travels with this girl, no matter the fact that he could tolerate her most days now. That was a matter for only his family.

"That's good news," Lorita said passively, as emotionlessly as if she had been inquiring about the weather. Then she diverted her gaze from his and added more quietly, "It is good to see you back."

"Thank you," Wilhelm said, caught off guard by the sudden gentleness and sincerity.

Lorita glanced up and the old gleam returned to her eyes. "Ah, so the brave warrior has learned some chivalry during his travels."

Wilhelm rolled his eyes at the slight. "I've always known chivalry, I just haven't bothered to exercise it on certain people. I see you still haven't learned manners in my absence."

"No, like you I choose to only use them on those who deserve them," she replied with a laugh. "You, to your misfortune, do not qualify. However I didn't come here to exchange insults with you." Lorita bestowed a generous smile on the eldest Grimm and then turned her attention to Jakob. "Actually I came to ask you something, if you have the time."

"Of course," Jakob said, gesturing for Lorita to take the remaining seat at the table. "What did you want to talk about?"

Lorita glanced around self-consciously, the first sign of it Wilhelm had ever seen in her, before starting. "Well it's really just a simple curiosity. Lately I've been having these strange dreams and since they are all quite similar, I was wondering if you might know something about them. After all, you do know the most about such magical things."

"Recurring nightmares?" Wilhelm asked in sudden interest, eyes wide with both fear and eagerness.

"I wouldn't call them nightmares, so much," Lorita said, surprised by the elder brother's curiosity. "Just very strange dreams."

"Of what?" Jakob asked, dreading the answer.

"I am walking in a wood when suddenly the air is filled with music - beautiful and terrible music. It makes me want to rejoice and weep all at once." Lorita paused, shuddering slightly. "I follow the sound until I come to a clearing. There is a stone house in the centre, and a young man is sitting on the ground in front of the house with his back to it, playing the flute. I step closer and he lowers the instrument, but the music always continues. Then he just stares right at me and says, 'Bring her the beans.' Always that. And then I wake up."

Jakob's face blanched as he listened to her recount, and when she finished and glanced up at him he covered his face with a shaking hand. Wilhelm and Lorita exchanged perturbed glances.

"Jake?" Wilhelm asked, touching his brother's shoulder in concern. The younger Grimm rubbed his face with his hand before looking up. The anxiety in his eyes makes unease settle over the room like a heavy shroud. "Jake, what aren't you telling us?"

"I haven't been completely honest with you, Will," Jakob admitted, a weary sigh escaping him and leaving him looking deflated. "I too have had nightmares, although not as often as yours, nor are they the same. But every few nights, I have the same dream that I had the night you awoke from your coma."

"The one about beans?" Wilhelm asked apprehensively. That particular dream had always caused a sting of guilt for him, having spend so many years pestering Jakob about those damned beans.

Jakob nodded, his face darkening. "But for a long time now, in the background of it I can hear music. Music that tempts my heart and also chills it. And lately Aurora has also complained about dreams of music. As she describes them, her dreams are much like Lorita's, only instead of the musician asking for beans, he asks her for 'the prince and the traitor.'"

"You and me," Wilhelm concluded instantly. Jakob's forehead furrowed questioningly. "The queen calls me her prince, and she blames her death on you."

Jakob's hands were pale and trembling on the tabletop, and as he spoke his voice shook along with his body. "The queen? It can't be true," he muttered, eyes focused on the wooden table. "She's dead, and she can't come back from the dead."

"I did," Wilhelm pointed out. "Several times now, actually. Why should she be any different?"

Jakob looked up, fierce determination burning in his eyes. "No. These are just illusions, and I will prove it." The sudden aggression in his voice startled the others. He flew to his feet and glared down at Wilhelm. "Come on."

"What are we doing, Jake?" Wilhelm asked, rising slowly. The women glanced between them uncertainly.

"You said she had rebuilt her tower and is living there," Jakob said, an almost accusing note in his voice. "We will go there and I will show you she's gone."

"Jakob, I don't know if that's a good idea," Angelika interjected, placing a calming hand on his forearm.

"I have to do this, Briar Rose," he replied shortly. "We have to know, once and for all."

"If you insist," Angelika consented stiffly. "But I won't join you. I'm not going in there again."

"I wouldn't ask you too," Jakob agreed, his voice softening slightly. "Come on, Will. This must end now."

"If this is the only way we can settle this, then I will do it," Wilhelm said reluctantly.

"I'll join you," Lorita said eagerly, leaping to her feet so quickly she startled the fox on her shoulder. "I want to see the place from my dreams in reality."

Jakob grunted a distracted approval and he kissed Angelika briefly before the three trooped out of the door. Although they each tried to maintain a casual appearance, the intensity of their preoccupations betrayed them. Instead of his usual youthful behaviour, Jakob moved in a purposeful manner, face set and path unwavering. Wilhelm walked slightly behind him, a peculiarity in itself, but he also lacked his charismatic swagger, replaced instead by cautious movements. Lorita walked behind them both, indifferent and bubbling with eagerness. It appeared to the townspeople that each of the three had absorbed the personality of another.

Jakob led the other two resolutely through town and the outlying fields. He didn't waved until they stood directly in the shadow of the ancient trees. The plants closest to the edge of the forest were young, growing up from the ashes of General Delatombe's burning. Beyond these fresh new lives, the malicious trees of Marbaden forest hovered above them in all their sinister beauty.

"You sure you want to do this, Jake?" Wilhelm asked, voice quavering slightly. Jakob glanced at his brother and was surprised by what he saw; Wilhelm was not looking up into the forest but instead at the ground, his eyes wide and his face pale. He looked near fainting.

"Will, are you all right?" Jakob asked nervously, his anger forgotten in concern for his brother's unsteady health.

"I'm not ill," Wilhelm responded as he cast a dubious glance at the dark trees, "But I won't deny that I still fear this place. Too many memories."

"You don't have to come if you don't think you can," Jakob said carefully. "I can go alone. I just - I have to see this place for myself. I have to know that your theories are false."

"I would never trust you to wander these woods alone," Wilhelm grunted, managing the faintest twinge of a smile. "Besides, I have to see this too."

Nodding, Jakob turned back to the woods and, taking a deep breath, plunged into their mysterious depths. Wilhelm and Lorita followed quickly, afraid of being separated. Even though it was not long after midday, shadows and twilight hung around them, the trees' fanning leaves blocking out the sun's gaze. Jakob trudged down the familiar path towards where the lone tower had once stood. Since the queen's death the trees had stopped moving so much, and the way was mostly unchanged.

After several long minutes, Jakob stopped, staring at something directly before him. Wilhelm glanced around his shoulder and recognised the mossy pond sunken into a hollow in the ground. The last time he had seen this pond he had watched Angelika sink helplessly into its black depths beneath a sheet of unbreakable ice. The elder Grimm felt a tremor shoot down the length of his spine.

"We're close," Jakob said, an ominous note in his voice. He led them around the water's edge and continued along a dusty track, moving far more slowly and carefully than he had before. Lorita tilted her head, listening attentively and then whispered for the brothers to stop.

"Is it just me, or can you hear that as well?" she asked, eyes panning the trees for the source of the noise.

"It's your imagination," Jakob said harshly and then began moving again. Lorita shook her head in exasperation - quite certain he was lying - but continued to follow his lead. Wilhelm listened eagerly for some sound but could hear nothing.

As they neared the clearing Jakob slowed again and gestured for the other two to keep quiet. On Lorita's shoulder, Baldwinn the fox arched his back, body quivering with pent-up anxiety. Wilhelm felt sure that had his heart been beating, it would have pounded clean from his chest. Jakob crept forward and brushed aside the remaining foliage blocking his view, and then froze in silent wonder. Wilhelm and Lorita pressed up behind him in a tight cluster, eager to relieve the expectancy and found themselves struck still in disbelief.

Standing before them in the centre of the clearing was a stone house, its chimney spouting curls of smoke up into the azure sky. The roof was thatched and the windows shuttered. Overall the place was pleasant enough, save for the hulking menace at its back. Rising from the ground was a stone tower, barely a third the height of the original but existent nonetheless. From the open window at the top of the tower issued an unearthly music, accompanied by a clear, honeyed singing voice.

For what felt like ages, the trio stared in amazement at the sight before them. Finally as the song came to a close, Jakob was the first to recover his voice.

"Impossible," he whispered, his mind grappling with the reality of the scene before him. "She's alive."


	9. She's Alive

**Chapter Eight**

_She's Alive_

The trio raced recklessly from the forest and didn't pause in the slightest until they had covered half the distance between the forest and the village. They stopped near one of the straw huts and all three of them collapsed to the ground, panting heavily. Wilhelm crushed the heels of his hands against his forehead forcefully, Lorita placed a hand over her hammering heart as she desperately gasped for breath, and Jakob leaned back against the hut and stared up into the sky, his head shaking like a pendulum.

"This can't be! How can this be?" the youngest Grimm asked wildly, slipping his hands beneath his glasses to press his fingertips into his eyes. "She's dead. She was dead. I _saw_ her die."

"That's the problem though, isn't it?" Wilhelm shot back, a look of terror on his flushed face. "She's _not_ dead."

Tears of panic pricked at the corner's of Jakob's eyes as he looked at his older brother. "Will, what are we going to do?"

Wilhelm rubbed methodical circles into his forehead and a growl of desperation left him. When he finally looked up at Jakob, the younger Grimm was startled to see nothing but fear in Wilhelm's eyes. "I don't know, Jake. I don't know what to do anymore."

"We should alert the townspeople," Lorita said decisively. The brothers turned to her in bewilderment.

"Tell the townspeople," Wilhelm echoed. "How do you propose we do that? 'Excuse me everyone, sorry to bother you but you remember that witch we killed for you a few years ago? Well apparently it didn't work, just to warn you.' Oh yes, that will go over splendidly."

"_Mein Gott,_ Wilhelm, this isn't about your image," Lorita snapped. "This is about the safety of those people. Those people look up to you. How do you think they would take it if they found out you didn't tell them about someone who may kill them because you were being a selfish _Arschloch__?_ She's already attacked this town once, she stole several of these people's children, and they deserve to know that she is back. So if you will not tell them, I will."

Wilhelm glared at the little woman, stunned and offended by her words. "I never said this had anything to do with my image, _Saumensch,_" he spit back angrily, throwing in the title out of spite as he stalled for the time to come up with a suitable retort.

"Lorita's right, we have to tell them," Jakob cut in when he saw her prepare to fight back. "We will be to blame if a village child goes missing because the townspeople are left in ignorance."

Wilhelm bit back the stubborn argument resting on his tongue and nodded. "What are we going to do about _her_ though?" he asked, gesturing vaguely towards the forest. "You are the one who understands this supernatural nonsense, Jake, what do you think we should do?"

"I haven't the slightest idea," Jakob answered, somewhat hysterical. "Why does everyone think I have some control over all of this magical chaos? That's how you almost died, damn it!" Jakob froze at the last statement and the other two gazed at him in shock.

Wilhelm opened and closed his mouth several times in an attempt to speak, but it took a long minute before he was capable of producing sound. "Are you still blaming yourself for that?"

Jakob pulled off his glasses and rubbed his eyes. "You trusted me to fight the magic and I failed. I failed you just like I failed Lotte." Jakob looked up and his eyes were ringed with unshed tears. "I killed Lotte and I almost killed you as well."

"Jakob..." Wilhelm faltered, unsure of what to say. All those years he had blamed Lotte's death on Jakob simply to escape his own guilt. It had never occurred to him how much his actions had damaged his brother. "Jake..."

"No, forget it," Jakob interrupted, wiping at his eyes once again. "We have more important things to deal with right now. We have to go warn the villagers." Jakob rose quickly, replacing his glasses. Lorita hurried to follow, slightly terrified by the conflict she had unknowingly started between the brothers. Wilhelm met his brother's gaze but Jakob turned away, guilt rising at the hurt in Wilhelm's eyes. With a sigh, Wilhelm stood and nodded to Jakob.

* * *

Jakob climbed up to stand on the edge of the well, glancing around at the crowd of villagers. He cleared his throat and silence fell as everyone gazed up at him with curious expectancy.

"Good people of Marbaden," Jakob called out and heard his own voice reverberate back at him off of the building walls. "My brother and I have just returned from a journey into the forest." Many of the people gasped and muttering broke out. "We had good reason to do so, because we received several reports of strange dreams involving the forest that have plagued people's sleep. A few people were under the impression that the Mirror Queen had returned from the grave and so we ventured into the forest to quell their fears."

Jakob paused, taking a deep breath. "Unfortunately our task was not achieved. When we reached the place we discovered that the Queen has rebuilt a residence in the forest and she is indeed alive."

Shocked yells and talk flew between the townsfolk and a few of the women screamed in horror. "You are certain it was her?" Sasha's father called, pulling his daughter close to him.

"We're positive," Jakob answered heavily.

"What should we do?" Elsie's mother asked, clutching Elsie's shoulder protectively.

Jakob removed his glasses and pinched the bridge of his nose tightly, a characteristic trait of stress, before replying. "We don't know. We aren't yet sure what her plans could possibly be, or even if she has devised any. We simply wanted to warn you about the potential danger. What you do is your own choice."

Instantly the crowd rose into action, families pushing their way through others as they rushed to and fro. Several people stopped to gossip with others in frantic tones. Jakob jumped down off the well's wall and walked over to where Wilhelm and Lorita stood.

"I'm impressed, Jake," Wilhelm said in a quiet voice. "You've become much more talented at being able to lie."

"I didn't lie," Jakob said with a shrug. "I simply rearranged a few details and didn't share names. Now come on, we should be getting back before Angelika gets too worried, if she isn't already." Without another word, Jakob turned and began pushing his way down the road towards his cottage. When he entered the house Angelika rushed towards him from across the room and wrapped him in a tight embrace.

"Jakob, you were gone so long I was starting to fear the worst," she whispered as they broke apart. "I was afraid -" She stopped in mid-sentence when she saw the grim expression on her husband's face. "Jakob, what has happened?"

"Will was right," Jakob said in a hollow voice, gripping her upper arms as much to steady himself as to comfort her. "She's alive."

* * *

The Mirror Queen was sitting in her tower, brushing her hair lovingly as she gazed into a mirror that stood over her vanity. Friedrich hovered in the background, watching her with quite as much adoration as she felt when she looked upon herself. Content with her chore for the moment, she turned to look at her follower and graced him with a smile.

"Oh my young prince," she said silkily. Friedrich smiled and approached her, taking her hand and placing his lips against it. "I have a task I wish for you to do."

"Anything for you, my queen," Friedrich said, dropping to a knee in front of her, his head inclined.

The Mirror Queen smiled down at her puppet. "I am afraid I must ask you to leave my side for a short while," she said, putting on a sad expression. Friedrich looked up, horrified. "I need you to travel into the town of Marbaden and keep a close eye on those Brothers Grimm. You must observe all you can about their lives and then return to me and report all you have learned. I must know as much about them as possible if they are to be defeated."

The piper bowed his head, his eagerness to please his queen overpowering his longing to be beside her."I will do as you ask of me, my lady," he said, rising to his feet once more. "I will learn all I can of these brothers. I will discover their weakness so that you may be free of their shadow once and for all."

"Oh my wonderful prince," the queen cooed. "Learn what you can quickly so that you may return to me soon, but be certain not to forget a single detail. Even the smallest things may open up a possibility of defeating them." Friedrich nodded and kissed her hand one last time before he turned on his heel and marched out of the tower. He gathered a small pack and then set off through the woods to Marbaden.


	10. Herr Prinz

**Chapter Nine**

_Herr Prinz_

Through the next several days, Marbaden was a beehive of activity, worry dominating everyone's faces. The children no longer played in the streets, kept closer to home and within their parent's eyesights at all times. The roads seemed to echo with fear and several houses had fallen empty as the terrified families who were not too proud to leave moved their families to safer towns. Every little abnormality sent the villagers into a whirlwind and tempers were wearing thin.

The Grimms were not excluded from this change in atmosphere and Jakob was more on edge, although he was hiding it better than the others. He put on a brave façade when among the rest of the townsfolk, but more nights than not he was shaken awake by repetitive nightmares that left him shaking and drenched in cold sweat. Angelika did not suffer from the nightmares often, but Jakob's muttering and thrashing about woke her up most nights as well. Aurora cried and complained almost nightly from bad dreams as well, always the same dream with the musician and his haunting melody.

However of them all, Wilhelm easily suffered the worst of it. He had become more secluded and withdrawn, and dark rings beneath his eyes betrayed the fact that he rarely slept. He was often seen fingering the scar over his heart, although he seemed to do it unconsciously because he looked confused whenever it was pointed out to him. It was common for him to hide himself away from the others, especially from Jakob, and he spent the majority of his time in his house, scribbling away in his writing book.

Surprisingly, the only person who seemed to be able to get through to him was Lorita. The faerie girl apparently possessed some hidden power that allowed her to break through the barriers around the eldest Grimm's mind and there were times that he behaved almost normally again. These moments of clarity never lasted long though and soon he was retreat into his protective shell once again. While Wilhelm and Lorita bickered constantly, it was a rare occasion to see him around town without her, mostly because it was near impossible to get him to leave his house unless she had coaxed him out with her sarcastic goading.

One afternoon, nearly a fortnight after the Queen's return had been discovered, Jakob was walking back from Wilhelm's house with Lorita as the pair discussed his brother's declining condition. "I'm really worried about him," Jakob admitted for what must have been the millionth time in the past few days. "If he doesn't get a decent night's sleep soon I'm afraid he's going to fall ill."

"I think he may be getting ill already," Lorita confessed, but held her ground when Jakob's fierce expression fixed on her. "He mutters to himself when he is writing, saying strange things. There are times when he does not seem to even be aware of his surroundings at all, as if he thinks he is some place else. It is unnerving, I'll admit."

Jakob's angry mask crumbled and underneath it his face showed nothing but defeat. "I don't know what to do anymore," he said, shrugging his shoulders hopelessly. "I can't think of any way to make him better."

"Kill the queen," Lorita replied simply.

Jakob stared at her as if she had suggested they walk to the moon. "Kill the queen?" he repeated hysterically. "Kill the queen? How exactly do you propose we do _that?"_

Lorita shrugged. "I don't know. But you will think of something. After all, you've done it once before."

Jakob laughed hollowly. "If we had done it already, we wouldn't have this problem, would we? She would already be dead," he exclaimed. "Besides there was no plan for that. We just played through things as they came. It was luck that saved us last time."

"Then maybe you'll have to trust your luck to help you again."

"You speak foolishness," Jakob said in frustration.

"Perhaps," she agreed, completely unbothered by the anger directed towards her. She had experienced it in varying degrees her entire life, and had grown used to it while living in Marbaden, although admittedly more so from Wilhelm than Jakob. It took a considerably out-of-line statement to upset her. "Yes, perhaps I do speak foolishness. But I also remember that your brother once told me that the story of my life was foolish and it was you who defended me. Those faerie tales that you write are made from foolishness, and yet beneath your pretty words they all give truth. Think on that before you are so quick to disregard foolishness."

Jakob clapped his mouth shut, unable to conceive a good reply to that logic. It always irritated him that she was able to exploit the weaknesses and truths that he wished to forget. No matter how he tried, she was always able to outwit him, usually employing his own arguments as her weapons of choice. _Bloody beans again,_ his mind reminded him bitterly.

To his relief, he was saved the shame of admitting defeat when a slight distraction allowed him to change the topic. His eyes caught a figure that he had started seeing more and more often as the weeks had progressed, but he couldn't recall having ever seen the man before that last fateful journey into the forest. There was nothing particularly outstanding about the man; he was a young man, several years younger than the Grimm himself, with blonde hair and simple clothing.

Jakob couldn't be sure what it was about the man that unnerved him, but the very sight of him made the hairs along the back of his neck stand on end. It was possible that most of his fears came from the man's untimely arrival in Marbaden. He sometimes wondered if he was being paranoid about the whole thing, but with times as dangerous as they were, Jakob had learned not to disregard his intuition.

"Do you know anything about that man?" Jakob asked curiously, gesturing with his chin toward the man who was sitting on the porch of the inn and chatting idly with another patron. Lorita glanced at him shortly and then immediately looked away.

"Not much," she replied, carrying on the conversation casually to not attract attention. Whenever Jakob was walking the streets of Marbaden the villagers watched him closely. He had become something of a leader in the time of suspicion, and he was behaving strangely then it would only raise fear among the people. The sudden deterioration of Wilhelm's health had already done enough there. "All I have heard is that he is a travelling man with the goal of learning of the cultures and regions of _Deutschland. _The only name I've heard him give is _Herr Prinz._"

"_Prinz_?" Jakob asked, the word striking the air from his lungs. He knew only too well what that word translated to: Prince. The name was too much of a coincidence to be merely that. It may have been just his paranoia, but the fact that the rebirth of the queen had come at the same time as the arrival of a man whose surname meant 'prince' was just too much for Jakob to accept willingly.

"We'll have to keep an eye on him," Jakob said, glancing sideways at the strange man again. "I see him far too often. He seems to appear wherever I am." Lorita nodded silently, struggling to retain her calm demeanour even though the developments arising around this new character had her just as worried as Jakob.

When they had reached Jakob's house, the pair of them were greeted with the scents of the dinner Angelika was preparing. Aurora looked up and smiled, instantly rushing into her father's arms. Jakob settled the little girl on his hip and planted a kiss on his wife's cheek.

"How is will?" Angelika asked carefully, surveying her husband's face hopefully. Jakob grimaced and shook his head, denying the hope that his brother had improved.

"Is _Onkel _Will still sick?" Aurora asked, her brilliantly green eyes widening with sadness.

Jakob gazed at her affectionately. "Yes, he's still sick, but he'll get better soon," he said, trying to believe it himself. Aurora didn't seem very pleased with the answer, but she gave a sullen nod and tucked her face into Jakob's shoulder.

"Would he not come for dinner?" Angelika asked. Wilhelm's steadily declining sanity seemed to be dragging Jakob along and she was worried that if Wilhelm didn't recover soon then Jakob would be driven mad as well.

Jakob shook his head, his face set in a grim expression. Lorita caught his glance and hastily distracted Aurora, dragging her away to play so the parents could talk privately. "In the middle of our conversation he simply turned and walked away, talking to himself. It was like he completely forgot we were there. He got out his script book and started writing feverishly. When we tried to talk to him he only answered in grunts and never looked up. There was nothing more we could do. I dared not try to force him to move again." Jakob scowled as the memory came back.

.

.

.

_"Come on, Will," Jakob urged, trying to get his brother's attention. Wilhelm leaned over his book, scratching away with a tattered quill. "Will, you need to eat something," Jakob pressed. _

_"Leave me be," Wilhelm answered, not pausing in his writing. _

_"Will," Jakob said, getting frustrated. "Stop writing and come along. You haven't left this house in days."_

_"I said, 'leave me be,'" Wilhelm repeated angrily. _

_"I've had enough, Wilhelm," Jakob said decisively He grasped Wilhelm's shoulder in one hand and put the other forcefully on top of the book. Wilhelm lashed out like a viper, spinning around and making Jakob lose his grip. _

_"I don't want to kill you!" Wilhelm shouted, his face red with rage, and he thrust his hands hard into Jakob's chest. The wind flew from Jakob's lungs and he staggered backward, falling to the floor in a heap. "Now leave. Me. Be!"_

_Jakob had scrambled back, stumbling out of the house. Outside had had collapsed against the wall, still fighting to regain his breath. When he glanced beneath his tunic, he could see two shining red marks, certain to leave dark bruises. Most painful of all, however, were the words that continued to ring in his ears. _

I don't want to kill you...

.

.

.

Jakob shoved away the words that hadn't left his mind in the days since the occurrence. Angelika placed a gentle kiss on his cheek, squeezing his hand reassuringly. "Don't worry," she said quietly. "He's the invincible Wilhelm Grimm, remember?" She gave him a weak smile and Jakob returned it without much conviction.

Who could protect the invincible Wilhelm Grimm from himself?

With a sigh, Jakob turned to watch Aurora playing with Lorita and the pet fox when something caught his attention. Visible in the street outside the window, the strange man from the inn was walking passed the house. _Herr Prinz_ glanced through the window and for the briefest second their eyes locked. Jakob felt his blood run cold.

Although the man seemed animate and his facial expression was calculating, his eyes were as dark and vacant as death.


	11. The Heart

**Chapter Ten**

_The Heart_

Wilhelm sat huddled at the desk, his quill flying madly across the open pages of his writing book. The words were erratic, slanting at different angles and crossing over each other. Some words ran out of ink halfway. There were so many layers and ink blots that the whole mess was practically illegible. Not that it mattered; for several pages now he had only written one phrase. Two words repeated a million times.

"_Do it, my prince."_

Wilhelm whined as the voice echoed in his head. It was disembodied and seemed to be everywhere at once. "No," he moaned, but his hand continued to scrawl the directions still.

"_You see the words. The orders. Do it, for me."_

"I can't," Wilhelm groaned. Beneath the desperation was a hard note of defiance. "I won't."

"_Yes, you will. You are mine. You will do my bidding, whether you wish it or not."_

Wilhelm's body seized as an image formed before his eyes, drawing his entire consciousness out of his body as though he was being pulled into the vision. The Mirror Queen stood, in all her terrible glory, beside a golden pedestal. In the centre of the plinth was a human heart, red and beating.

"Your heart is mine, prince," the queen said and she trailed a fingertip over the tender organ.

"No" Wilhelm gasped, filled with rage and terror. "Impossible!" The queen smiled wickedly and plunged a fingernail into the heart. Wilhelm screamed in agony, his hands scrabbling over his chest in pain. It felt exactly as though he were reliving that night years ago in the tower, when Jakob had slid the dagger into him. He was being stabbed in the heart.

There were tears on Wilhelm's face when the pain finally died to a bearable level. He could taste the coppery sting of blood in his mouth, making him nearly gag. The queen smiled victoriously, blood dripping from her fingertip.

"You see, my handsome prince, you are mine," she cooed in her poisoned honey voice. "This heart is yours and it belongs to me. You will do as I ask." Giving him a meaningful stare, she roughly prodded the small incision she had just created. Wilhelm winced as the pain lanced through him.

"So do it," he spit venomously . "Stab it. Torment me. Kill me. I would rather die than do what you ask."

"I would not kill you," the queen said with a mocking pout.

"Then I will do it myself!"

"So noble." The queen clicked her tongue, shaking her head. "No, my prince, you won't. You cannot be killed, not so long as your heart is free of your body. You know that. You can defy me no longer. You are mine to command."

"I won't-" Wilhelm's argument died on his lips. The queen had been and placed her scarlet lips against the heart. A gloriously freeing sensation filled Wilhelm's mind as all thought left him, making him light-headed. A brief though, in the queen's voice, flashed through his mind and he acted without hesitation.

She pulled her lips, now crimson and bloody, away from the heart and instantly Wilhelm felt a searing pain. Her words, 'hurt yourself,' still echoed in the back of his mind and the agonising throbbing in his left arm gave him little doubt that he had done as she asked.

"You see, my prince, the power of my kiss is still inside of you. When I first brought you under my power, it was sealed with a kiss. That magic does not fade. Even now your soul is bound to my will." The queen grinned, a droplet of blood rolling down from beneath her lip and staining her snowy skin. Horror flooded into Wilhelm and on its pedestal the heart began to beat faster. "Yes. You are mine. Completely."

"No," Wilhelm sobbed in terror. This was it, though. It explained everything that had happened over the past two years. The night his heartbeat had suddenly disappeared had been the night she had stolen his heart from his body. That was why he couldn't die. Why he felt strange compulsions he couldn't explain. Why he was plagued by nightmares where she called to him. He had been right, she had been biding her time. "No, please, I can't."

"You will," the queen demanded simply. "You have seen that I can force your hand. Either you will do it on your own and be as merciful as you please, or I will make you. I will make you tear him apart, and hold his dying heart in your hands. I will force misery and suffering upon your entire village, at your hands. Decide, my prince, only remember that you are mine. You _will_ do as I wish."

Still crying, Wilhelm mumbled, "Yes, my queen."

The vision faded and Wilhelm felt his mind slowly return to his body. The pain in his arm redoubled. Slowly, he grew aware of his surroundings again and realised that he had fallen from his chair and had been writhing on the floor. His arm sent out a stinging pulse again and he fearfully looked over at it. His writing quill protruded from his forearm and the feather was speckled with red.

Tremulously, he moved his gaze to the other object that had fallen to the floor with him. The black leather book was lying open and he stared in horror at the two words printed a hundred times across the pages in his own hand.

_K__ill Jakob._


	12. A Parting of Ways

**Chapter Eleven**

_A Parting of Ways_

Jakob sat in front of the fire, staring pensively into its flickering depths. His mind was racing. He couldn't get the image of that man out of his head. Those eyes, like silent, mysterious caverns, were hauntingly familiar. Where had he seen eyes like that before?

"Jakob?"

The younger Grimm startled at the voice and looked up to see Angelika standing beside him. She slipped into his lap, wrapping her arms around his shoulders and giving him a concerned look.

"What is wrong, Jake?" she asked gently.

"What is right?" he replied in frustration.

Angelika took his outburst in stride. "You are more worried than usual. What has changed?"

"Will is getting worse." Jakob took off his glasses and rubbed the bridge of his nose. "And there is a new man in town who makes me uneasy. He arrived near the day that Will and I went into the woods, and now I see him everywhere. Like he is following me. He also claims that his surname is _Prinz._"

Angelika scowled. "Prince? I have met him. The blond man who is staying at the inn. He asked me questions about you. Says that he's travelling Germany and heard tales of the great Brothers Grimm, so he came to learn more about you. I didn't tell him anything, though. I told him I was busy and hurried away. I don't like the look in his eyes, they're so - empty."

"I want you to stay away from him," Jakob said darkly. He expected his independent wife to protest, arguing that she could defend herself but she only nodded her consent. Jakob was honestly grateful for the agreement. "Is Aurora already asleep?" he asked, his tone softening greatly.

"She was tired," Angelika confirmed with a sad smile. "She wears herself out worrying about Will, just like her father." Jakob chuckled. "You need sleep, Jake."

"I will," he promised. "I was only trying to settle my mind so I could rest." Angelika climbed from his lap and stood behind him, rubbing the muscles in his shoulders with a practised hand. Jakob let out a noise of contentment and his head fell back against her stomach, eyes closed.

Several minutes later, she touched his cheek lightly, stirring him back to consciousness "Come on, Jake, time for bed," she said. He nodded sleepily, far too tired to argue. Heaving himself from the chair, wondering when his own body had begun to feel like too much weight to bear, he followed her to bed.

Jakob was midway through unbuttoning his tunic when a knock at the door made him pause. His brow furrowed. Who would be calling at this hour? _Maybe it's Will_, he thought and headed hastily for the door. The man outside was not Wilhelm, but he was definitely scared. His wide eyes shone in his pallid face as he stared up at Jakob, fidgeting.

"Mister Grimm, you had best come," the man said in a rush.

"What is it?" Jakob asked suspiciously.

"I live across from your brother," the man said. This caught Jakob's attention immediately. "I heard screaming. He does not answer his door, and with how strangely he's been, well, we dare not just go it. I thought it would be best to fetch you."

Jakob's heart leapt into his throat as a million horrifying scenarios flew through his head. He turned back to Angelika long enough to say, "stay with Aurora," before he flew out the door. His feet were bare on the chilly ground and his half-opened tunic was hanging off one shoulder, but he was too blinded by fear to notice.

He didn't pause to knock at Wilhelm's house, throwing open the door and tumbling inside. Looking around frantically, waiting for his eyes to adjust to the lack of light, he tried to locate his brother. "Will, where are you?"

"Stay away."

The growl startled Jakob and he turned toward the source. Faintly, he picked out a figure huddled in the corner against the desk. Relief that Wilhelm was at least alive swept into Jakob and he moved toward him.

"Will, what's going on? The man said you were screaming," Jakob said, still trying to see clearly in the dark. "What happened?"

"I said '_Stay away_.'"

Jakob had finally gotten close enough to see Wilhelm and he froze instantly. Wilhelm looked paler and gaunter than Jakob had ever seen him. There was a trail of blood from the corner of his mouth, standing out brilliantly scarlet on his skin. Beside him was his writing book and quill. The tip of the feather was dark red and a line of crimson text glistened over the black ink. Jakob's stomach churned. "Will, what is this?" It looked as though Wilhelm had written something in his own blood. Jakob walked forward and knelt beside his brother.

"Stay away, Jake!" Wilhelm suddenly sprang into action, hurling himself forward and shoving Jakob sideways. Jakob fell back against the desk, his breath bursting out of him, and Wilhelm stumbled to the opposite side of the room to hide himself among the shadows.

"What's going on, Will?" Jakob asked frantically, too afraid to move.

"Go, Jake, get out!" Wilhelm yelled.

"Why?" Jakob shouted back. "What happened?"

"Nothing. Stay away."

"This isn't nothing, Will," Jakob said fiercely. Hauling himself up, he took a few steps forward and Wilhelm skittered into the corner. "It's like you're afraid of me."

"Not you," Wilhelm grumbled. "Me."

"You?" Jakob pressed.

"I don't want to kill you," Wilhelm said and there was a note of desperation in his voice now.

"Will, why would you – "

"_I don't want to kill you!_"

Silence floated in the wake of this statement and neither brother moved as they stared each other down in the dimly lit house. Finally Jakob lifted a hand to pinch at his nose again. "This is ridiculous, Will," Jakob said, annoyed now. "If you don't want to kill me, then don't, damn it."

"I can't," Wilhelm said. "She has me. My heart, I mean. I can't stop it. She _wants_ me to kill you."

Jakob paused. So that was what was going with Wilhelm. It was something to do with the queen. "It was just a dream," Jakob said earnestly. "Another nightmare."

"No, not this time," Wilhelm rambled, pacing a short line in the corner. "It was real. She's got it. My heart. That's why I don't feel it beat, why I don't die. She can make me do it. She wants me to kill you. I can't." Wilhelm suddenly swivelled on Jakob, his face hard. "Get out! Stay away from me!"

"Will," Jakob said, but the rest of his sentence was cut off. Wilhelm flew at him and grabbed him by the throat. Jakob sputtered and struggled against the iron grip as Wilhelm dragged him to the door. Then, with a strength that his wasted body shouldn't have possessed, he tossed the younger Grimm out into the street.

"Stay away from me!" Wilhelm bellowed one last time before the door slammed shut. Jakob stared in surprise and horror at the darkened doorway. He was gasping for breath and his neck felt bruised, but he was more concerned about the man on the other side of the wood.

Climbing to his feet gingerly, he stepped up to the door. "Will," he shouted into the wood.

"Get away," Wilhelm replied.

"Will, open the door," Jakob demanded.

"Didn't you hear? I said, 'Get away.'"

Jakob tried the doorhandle but it was locked. "Open the door," he repeated.

"_Verdammt_, Jakob!" Jakob jumped backward in fright at the loud bang signalling that Wilhelm had slammed his fists against the door, the wood shuddering. "Get away now, or I _will_ kill you." The venom and conviction in Wilhelm's voice frightened Jakob. There was no doubt that he being was entirely serious. These weren't the crazed ramblings that Jakob had grown used to hearing; this was a genuine threat.

"Fine," Jakob barked angrily. "I'll go, for now. I'll be back tomorrow. Get some sleep, maybe you'll have more sense."

The answer came back as a quiet plea, barely audible through the closed door. "Just go."

Jakob left without another word, but every step he took made his heart grow heavier. He was terrified by this new level of madness that Wilhelm had reached. For the past two years he had seen his brother's sanity slowly declining, but in just the past two weeks it had struck an intense, downward spiral. Jakob was watching Wilhelm flying towards insanity and he felt utterly powerless to stop it.

_What if Will was telling the truth?_ Jakob suddenly thought. It seemed impossible, but then again Wilhelm had been right about the queen being alive. What if she really was feeding thoughts into his head? What if she had stolen his heart?

"Ridiculous," Jakob said aloud. He had been there the night Wilhelm's heart had stopped beating. There was no way she could have removed it without Jakob seeing. "Absolutely impossible."

"It always seems that way, doesn't it?"

Jakob spun towards the voice in fright. The man from the inn, Prinz, was leaning against the side of a house only feet away, staring up at the sky. Jakob had never heard him speak before that moment and his voice was light and musical, clashing savagely with the eerie feeling his presence stirred up in Jakob's chest.

As Jakob opened his mouth to speak the man suddenly looked down at him, fixing him in that hollow stare. Jakob's questions stuck fast in his throat. With a grin and a wink, the man pushed himself away from the wall. "Good-night, Mister Grimm," he said, still smirking cheekily. Then he turned and disappeared between the houses before Jakob could say another word.


	13. Royal Plots

**Chapter Twelve**

_Royal Plots_

Friedrich raced through the woods, his heart pounded eagerly. For two weeks now he had been in Marbaden, masquerading as a traveller and secretly collecting information on the Brothers Grimm. Thrilled by all of the details he had gathered he was hurrying back to his queen to complete his mission. She would be so proud of him and the great work he had done for her. He would please her with his news. Most importantly, he would be with her again. Being separated for this fortnight had been gruelling and he longed to simply feast his eyes on her unparalleled beauty once again.

The forest abruptly surrendered into the enormous clearing. Friedrich felt a broad smile cross his face as he gazed up at the tower. It was nothing compared to the enormous monolith it had once been, its tip could barely reaching the treetops. The crumbled debris of the former tower still littered the clearing, the crushed stones that they had been unable to use in the reconstruction. At the base of the tower was the small cottage where Friedrich stood guard at night while his lady slept. The sight that encouraged him the most, however, was the flickering light in the tower's sole window. His queen was still awake.

Friedrich stumbled forward into the cottage, dropping his thin pack unceremoniously on the floor. In the darkness, he walked over to the side of the cottage that rested against the tower's base. The stones made up this fourth wall and the cottage was tucked up neatly to it. Stopping just inches from the stone, Friedrich drew his flute from the pouch at his waist. Placing it against his lips, he played seven short notes. The moment the last one had sounded, the stone in front of him rippled and an archway formed, revealing a winding staircase.

Friedrich stashed the flute back in its pouch as he raced up the stairs, his heavy footsteps echoing far ahead of him. From above he could hear the soft hum of his queen's voice, luring him ever upward even after his legs began to burn with the effort. A gentle glow slowly appeared above him and he pushed himself harder, knowing that he was that much closer to reaching her. The flickering light of her candles grew stronger and finally he stumbled onto the landing.

The empty doorway revealed the round room beyond. The crudely reconstructed bed was visible at one edge of the frame while the gleaming throne could be seen against the other side. Directly in front of him, perfectly flush with the doorway, was the beautiful mirror that his queen had been trapped within when he'd found her. He could see his reflection, dishevelled and dirty from his frantic race through the forest, and he hastily combed his fingers through his hair and tried vainly to improve his appearance.

"Friedrich?" The melodic voice cooing from inside the room made the piper weak in the knees. He walked in, his eyes searching until they landed on the queen. She was perched on the windowsill and had paused in brushing her hair to look at him. A relieved smile covered her face. "Oh my prince, you have returned," she said happily.

"Yes, my queen," Friedrich said and he knelt down, bowing his head in respect. "I have returned with the information you requested."

"What a wonderful prince you are," she said, clasping her hands in front of her chest. "You are so good to me. What have you learned? Tell me everything."

"Of course, my queen," Friedrich said and began recounting everything that he had learned over the past fortnight. He told her of how the village hummed with the possibility that she was alive and yet hardly any of them would leave despite their fears. As he continued on this she grew suddenly irritable.

"Yes, yes, but what of the Brothers Grimm?" she asked waspishly. Then a fraction of a second later she flashed him an apologetic smile as if to reconcile this.

Friedrich paid no heed to her outburst, taking it in stride. It was his fault she had grown angry and he felt he deserved her wrath, whether it lasted a minute or a year. "My apologies, my queen," he said quickly. "I believe Wilhelm is quite mad. He accepts the company of no one, except occasionally a young woman. Jakob tries but Wilhelm forces him away. Just this night I watched Wilhelm throw Jakob from his house, screaming at him like a mad man."

The queen sighed in frustration. "I know of Wilhelm's madness," she said. "Did you learn nothing useful?"

"The woman Wilhelm allows to see him is rumoured to be a faerie," Friedrich blurted out, hoping to gain back her favour The queen's eyes widened in surprise and she leaned toward him attentively. Friedrich barrelled on, glad that he had finally said something to please her. "I have not heard the whole story of her, but although she looks to be a child she has claimed to be more than two decades. The villagers say she is the child of a faerie woman and the girl does not deny this story. It seems fantastic but I think it may be true. There is something about her that does not seem – human."

"A faerie?" the queen asked with rapt attention. She leaned back against the edge of the window, her expression thoughtful. "She could prove to be extremely useful. If I could capture her, her immortality…" She trailed off, the rest of her sentence only playing out in her head. After a few minutes she returned her attention to Friedrich. "What of Jakob? Does he have a lover? Anyone close to him?"

"A wife and child," Friedrich replied. "His wife is one of the young girls that were stolen away from you when you tried to regain your life those years ago, when those brothers hurt you."

"The child, of what age is she?" the queen asked, a distracted look on her face as she laid out plans in her head.

"I would not say more than three years," Friedrich said. "I do not know for sure. I could not get either of the brothers or Jakob's wife or the faerie girl to speak with me. They seemed very suspicious of me."

"Very young, that is perfect," the queen breathed, registering only his first sentence. There was a long period of silence as she continued plotting in her mind and then she turned her bright eyes on the eager boy. "You have served me wonderfully, my precious prince. We are so very close to our goal now."

"Only tell me what it is I must do for you, my queen," Friedrich said in a rush and he knelt at her feet.

The queen cooed and gestured at a chair opposite. "Come, sit with me, my prince, and I will tell you all of what we must do."


	14. Hopelessness

**Chapter Thirteen**

_Hopelessness_

Jakob sat on the ground outside his house, hugging his knees to his chest. He couldn't go inside, not yet. Angelika would undoubtedly be waiting up for him, hoping for news but ready to comfort him if the news was bad. He couldn't bring himself to face her just yet. Not to tell her that his brother was vaguely homicidal and completely insane. He could barely get himself to understand it, let alone explain the night's events to another person.

His neck throbbed in a way that made it painful to breathe. Delicately he touched the bruises and winced. There would be no way to hide these; even without seeing them he could tell that most of his neck would be dark purple. Wilhelm's strength had astounded his brother. With his withdrawn behaviour and lack of meals, Jakob had expected Wilhelm to be weak and frail. The elder Grimm had proved himself to be quite the reverse. How could it be possible?

Maybe it really was the witch queen. Maybe he had maintained his strength because she was feeding her magic into him. Jakob didn't want to believe it but he had to acknowledge that it was an option, as ridiculous as it was. If it was so, if that's what had really caused these changes in his brother, he had no idea what to do. It seemed that the best idea would be to kill the mirror queen for good, but he couldn't do it alone. He needed Wilhelm. Wilhelm was the brave one, the real fighter. Jakob knew he couldn't face this evil without the other Grimm. However it didn't seem like Wilhelm was in the best condition to fight a malevolent sorceress, especially since he thought she was controlling his mind.

"What am I going to do?" Jakob moaned, covering his face with his hands as he felt his eyes beginning to burn. There was nothing he could think of to do. Nothing at all. He sank into his misery as he was washed away on a wave of hopelessness.

* * *

Wilhelm paced anxious circles around the main room of his house. What he had just done was a good thing. It was to protect Jakob. It was the right thing to do and he knew it. Now the only thing to do was convince himself of that.

His mind was flashing with a series of images. The taunting words on the page of his journal; the heart beating on its golden plinth; the queen's sickly sweet smile as her crimson lips dripped blood; the stained quill protruding from his flesh; Jakob's terrified face as Wilhelm's hands fastened around his throat. The elder Grimm looked down at his dirty palms as though they had betrayed him. He knew he'd needed to get Jakob away before something bad happened, but hurting him had never been part of his plan.

"_You can't help yourself, Wilhelm."_

Wilhelm groaned, pressing the heels of his hands against his temples, trying to block out the voice echoing in his head. "No, please," he begged through gritted teeth. "Just leave me alone."

"_Now Wilhelm, that is not very nice,"_ the voice simpered and it felt as though his head was being crushed. _"Don't you love me anymore?"_

"No! Jakob – Jakob is my brother!"

"_Your brother who doesn't _believe _you,"_ the voice said. _"He just doesn't understand, does he? He thinks you are a fool; thinks you are a liar. What a poor brother he is that he won't even listen to you when you are in so much pain."_

Wilhelm felt anger rising, unbidden, inside him. Jakob didn't care, he wasn't even trying to understand what he was going through. He didn't believe anything that Wilhelm said. Hadn't for years, not since this whole thing had started. He thought it was all just _beans._

"No!" Wilhelm suddenly screamed. The anger filling him was now directed at a new source. "Stop manipulating me. Stay out of my head, you witch!" A crippling pain exploded in him and he collapsed to the floor, clutching at his hollow chest. Once again the queen's image formed in his mind as clearly as if she were standing in front of him.

"How could I leave you alone, dear Wilhelm?" the queen cooed but there was malice beneath her smile. "You are the key to my salvation. To my revenge."

"I won't do it," Wilhelm growled through his teeth, the pain in his body so intense that he couldn't unclench his jaw. "I won't."

"Please, Wilhelm, we have already discussed this tonight," she said, almost wearily. "You will do as I tell you, whether you wish it or not. You are my prince. You will obey me."

Wilhelm shook his head and by now could taste blood in his mouth. "I will kill you first," he hissed mutinously.

To his surprise, the queen laughed at this statement and fixed him with an amused stare.

"No, my dear prince, I do not think that you will," she said with certainty. "I have prepared myself for such a thing and just as you cannot die, neither can I. The source of my immortality is within you. So long as you live I cannot die."

"What do you mean?" Wilhelm asked but the queen only laughed.

"You are _my_ heart, Wilhelm," she purred. Her image was fading and gradually Wilhelm was again in his dark house, the faintest glow of sunrise coming through a crack in the curtains. The elder Grimm sat up, his muscles sore from being coiled for so long. Grimacing, he spat out a mouthful of syrupy blood and felt his head throb with his every movement.

"I will defeat you," he murmured into the empty air. "I will not allow you to use me to kill Jakob. I will find a way to kill you."

"_Try as you like, my prince, fighting against me is hopeless."_


	15. Anything to Help

**Chapter Fourteen**

_Anything to Help_

Jakob groaned as he suddenly tipped backward and his head collided with the ground. There was a yelp and then hands slipped beneath his skull, lifting him into a sitting position again.

"Jakob, are you alright?" asked a frantic voice. "What are you doing out here?"

Jakob blinked and managed to open his eyes to see Angelika hovering at his side, her face white with worry. He groaned again and looked around, surprised to find himself sitting on his doorstep. The sky was vaguely pink in the west, signifying sunrise. His body ached and he was shivering with cold.

"Jakob?" Angelika asked fearfully.

"I–" Pain flared in his neck and he choked and fell silent, his hand lifting to his throat carefully. Angelika saw the movement and glanced at his skin before a quiet curse escaped her.

"_Mein Gott, _what happened to you?" she asked, tilting his chin up to examine the bruises. "These are hand-prints Who did this?" When Jakob scowled but didn't answer Angelika gasped. "No, not Wilhelm?" Jakob jerked his head in a shallow semblance of a nod. "Oh Jakob…"

Fifteen minutes later the couple was inside, Angelika serving him a warm drink while Jakob miserably recounted the story hoarsely. Angelika was as horrified by the turn in events as Jakob was, perhaps more so because she could see the toll it had taken on her husband. The two overlapping, hand-shaped bruises across his neck were bold on his paled skin and there was a long but shallow scrape that spanned the left side of his face from being thrown onto the street. The worst damage, however, wasn't on the outside.

"There has to be something I can do," Jakob said, staring morosely into the contents of his cup. "Something to help him. Anything."

Angelika remained silent, not sure what to say. As much as she didn't want to admit it, it seemed like Wilhelm was beyond help. There was only one person he would even talk to anymore and she…

"Lorita," Angelika gasped suddenly, making Jakob look up. "She visits Wilhelm every day. You have to warn her, let her know what happened before she goes there so she can be ready."

Jakob instantly stood up, seeing a chance. Wilhelm listened to Lorita, maybe she could help them. He dressed in clean clothes and headed for the door but Angelika stopped him, a wool scarf in her hands. "If the village sees those bruises, they will know who made them," she explained as she wrapped the scarf gingerly around his neck. "They are already wary of him. If they see he will hurt even you now, they might turn against him and then who knows what will happen."

"Thank you, Briar Rose," Jakob said and kissed her forehead. "I will be home soon." He headed across town toward the inn at a fast walk, trying to act casual as he returned the greetings called at him. There were a few curious glances at his scarf but no one said anything about it.

"Morning Mister Grimm," the innkeeper said when Jakob entered the barroom. "Can I get you something?"

"Has Lorita come down yet?" Jakob asked.

"Not that I've seen," the barman answered. "You can go on up to her room and check if you like. Room four." Jakob thanked him and went up the staircase. At the door he knocked and was answered by a set of nearly inaudible footsteps before Lorita opened the door.

"Oh, Jakob, good morning," Lorita said, her surprise evident.

"Can I come in?" Jakob asked, not wanting to be overheard. Lorita nodded and stepped back so he could come in. Once the door was shut, Lorita turned on him.

"Alright Jake, what's going on?" she asked, planting her fists on her hips. Coming from someone who looked like a child the position was comical, and had it been any other time Jakob would have laughed. Instead, his calm façade faded to reveal his worry.

"I came to warn you, Will's getting much worse." As he said this he pulled off his scarf and Lorita took a step back.

"No, he didn't," Lorita said, her hands covering her mouth and she shook her head. "He couldn't have." Jakob gave a heavy sigh and sank onto a nearby chair. He knew his legs wouldn't support him through yet another retelling of the story. Lorita pulled a second chair up beside him, watching with wide eyes as he slowly described Wilhelm's behaviour.

"She's stolen his heart?" Lorita choked incredulously.

"That's what he says," Jakob said.

Lorita's eyes narrowed slightly. "You don't believe him?"

Jakob looked over at her in surprise. "Well, no, how could I? It's impossible. How could she have taken his heart out of his body?"

"How can he still be alive but have no heartbeat? How could he have a gaping wound in his stomach that never bled? What could possibly drive him to avoid his family? What could make him hurt you, of all people? How could a thousand-year-old witch have been kidnapping young girls to bring back her youth?" Lorita paused and gave him a meaningful look. "Jakob, what in your life has ever led you to believe that anything is impossible? You used to be the one willing to believe that anything could be magical. You believed me when no one else would. But ever since William got sick, you won't believe in even the most obvious magic. What changed?"

"Will did," Jakob said. "He talks nothing but nonsense and it just can't be true. There has to be a logical – "

He was cut off as Lorita let out a bright laugh. "Logical? Now there is a word I never thought I'd hear you use. Jake, just because Will is no longer being the doubter doesn't mean you should start. You might get more accomplished together if you are finally on the same page." She surveyed him and added with a smile, "Besides, doubt doesn't suit you."

Jakob stared down at the floor for a long minute and when he finally looked up his eyes were red. "Lorita, I... thank you."

Lorita smiled and patted his shoulder. "That's what friends are for. Now go home and get some sleep. You look like you haven't slept in weeks. I'll go talk to Will. And I'll be careful," she added when Jakob's gaze became concerned. The younger Grimm thanked her once more and, after wrapping his neck in the scarf again, returned home.

Just after he'd left Lorita did as well, but headed in the opposite direction toward Wilhelm's house. She left Baldwinn asleep in her room because being around Wilhelm always made the little fox anxious. The neighbours watched her apprehensively as she approached the door, but she just smiled cheerfully at them and knocked.

"Go away, Jake," came the growl from the other side.

"It's me," she said and there was a shuffle of steps from inside. The door opened and although she couldn't see Wilhelm she entered. Once she was inside the door closed and she realized Wilhelm had been standing behind it so he wouldn't be seen from outside. Even in the semi-darkness she could see why.

Wilhelm's skin was bleached white but beneath his eyes were black rings so wide he looked as though he'd been in a fight. There were lines of dark red beneath his mouth and nose, the same colour as his left forearm, where she could see an ominous wound. A few designs of black could be seen on his arms but Lorita couldn't tell what they were in this poor lighting.

"I thought you were Jake come back again," Wilhelm said in a voice even hoarser than his brother's. "He was here last night."

"So I heard," Lorita said. The change that overcame Wilhelm at this was astounding. His body began shaking and with a look of guilt on his face he slumped onto the floor. Lorita hurried to kneel at his side.

"I didn't mean to do it," Wilhelm sobbed. "I didn't mean to hurt him, but he wouldn't listen. She wants me to kill him, Lorita. I tried to tell him but he won't listen. I had to make him leave before she made me kill him. She can do it. She has my heart."

Lorita rubbed his shoulder, disturbed by how well she could feel the bones. Wilhelm had looked bad the morning before but it seemed that his condition had worsened ten-fold overnight. She found herself wondering how he'd had the strength to throw Jakob out when he looked as though he couldn't stand on his own.

"So that's why you can't feel it beat," Lorita said slowly. The look of desperate hope and relief on Wilhelm's face was heartbreaking.

"You believe me?" he asked breathlessly.

"Of course," Lorita said and squeezed his shoulder. "I always do." She paused and then added, "And so does Jakob. He believes you, he's just – he's scared." Wilhelm looked sceptical and muttered something that sounded very much like, "beans," but he nodded. Lorita shook her head sadly and then stood up. "Come on, Will, we should clean you up a bit. You look like a corpse." Wilhelm grimaced and she murmured, "Sorry. Honestly though, come on."

Wilhelm groaned but he allowed her to pull him to his feet. She walked him to the chair by his desk and then parted the curtains slightly so she could see him better. Wilhelm flinched away from the light, pressing his eyes shut.

"Just because you don't want to be near Jake doesn't mean you shouldn't see the sun once in a while," she chided, walking back to him.

"I don't want to be seen like this," Wilhelm said darkly.

"I didn't say you had to go outside," Lorita said and shrugged, reaching for his arm. Wilhelm tried to pull away but she grabbed his wrist and forced him to turn his arm over so she could examine the wound. "But you could open those curtains every once in a while. You might look less like a ghost if you do. What happened here?" She traced a finger around the circular opening in his arm and he scowled. With the other hand he reached across and lifted the crimson-stained quill from the desk. Lorita's eyes widened in horror.

"She made me do it," he hissed quietly, turning his face away from her questioning glance. "With my heart, she can control me. She told me to hurt myself and that's what happened."

"Why do you believe me?" he asked.

Lorita stared at him curiously, thinking over the answer while she wiped the dried blood from his face. Wilhelm scowled at the action and she smiled in return. When she'd finally set the cloth aside she perched herself on his desk. "Why shouldn't I?" she asked.

"You don't really know me that well. We've never really gotten along the greatest. And it's all so ridiculous. I know what I'm saying sounds impossible, it's not like I don't understand that. But why do _you_ believe it?"

Lorita shrugged. "If there's one person in the world who would believe that there are unexplainable magicks in the world, it would be me," she said simply. "I mean, I was born from a tree, Will. It doesn't get much stranger than that. Well, alright, having your heart disappear from your chest might be a bit stranger. Still, I understand what it's like to tell the truth and have no one believe you."

"Yeah, I suppose you're right," Wilhelm said thoughtfully. "I'm still not saying that I believe you," he added with a muted smile. "I still think you're just a know-it-all kid."

Lorita smiled at this. "I should think you would prefer to think I am older," she observed. "Otherwise you are often being outsmarted by a child. What a disgrace."

"I always hate it when you make a good point. Very well, I concede. Be a faerie woman for all I care." For the first time in weeks there was a genuine smile on Wilhelm's face, small as it may be.

"You say that like it's a choice," Lorita commented with a laugh. "Fine, perhaps I will." They sat in a contented silence for a while before Wilhelm finally broke the quiet.

"It is strange how comforting you are when you do nothing but drive me mad," he said in a light tone but there was something more sincere beneath it that caught Lorita's attention. "I've always wondered, why do you always visit me?"

"For the same reason that I am the only person you will talk normally to," she replied without pausing to think. Wilhelm was baffled by this.

"I don't know why that is," he admitted, making Lorita smile.

"Neither do I," she said. "Maybe I get enjoyment from driving you mad. Maybe I get some sort of satisfaction from being the only one you'll humour Maybe I do it to lessen Jakob's guilt by letting him know we're still doing everything we can to help you. And then maybe I just have nothing better to do with my days."

Wilhelm gave a dry chuckle. "I think it's most likely the last one," he said and Lorita nodded in agreement.

"Probably," she said. "Still, I do like helping Jakob after all he and Angelika have done for me and I will admit that I enjoy tormenting you."

Wilhelm laughed but it quickly turned into a hacking cough and he struggled to stifle it. "What are friends for, right?" he said when he could speak again.

"Right," Lorita said with a raised eyebrow. "Friends." Her face relaxed into a smile and she stood up. "I've got to get back before Baldwinn gets nervous and goes looking for me. Last time that happened he nearly got hunted." She chuckled and shook her head. "I'll be back tonight, with food. I want you to eat a decent supper for once."

"Lorita, you know why I don't want you coming at night," Wilhelm said with a heavy sigh. "She's always stronger at night. I don't want you to get hurt."

"You can't hurt me, Will," she said confidently. "I may be small but I'm just as strong as you. Besides, maybe if I'm here I can help you. We can find a way to keep her away." Wilhelm looked like he would argue again but Lorita cut across him. "I'm coming whether you want it or not, so don't waste your breath."

"I wasn't," he said with a short smile. "I just wanted to ask a favour You can come tonight, I won't stop you, but could you please keep Jake away? He might listen to you. I don't want him to get hurt."

Lorita nodded solemnly. "I'll talk to him, keep him away at least for a few days until we know if you can fight off this queen," she promised. "If he thinks it might help you he'll try just about anything. He really does want to help you, Will. You know that, right?"

Wilhelm looked uncomfortable as he nodded and gave a non-committal grunt. Lorita grasped his shoulder one more time and, with an encouraging smile, she left. First she would have to go back to the inn and pick up Baldwinn, and then she'd go to Jakob's house and tell him he couldn't see his brother anymore.


	16. Dinner Talk

**Chapter Fifteen**

_Dinner Talk_

Lorita walked slowly away from Jakob's house that evening, subdued by the day's events. As Wilhelm had requested, she had told Jakob that it would be best not to go near his brother for at least a few days, possibly longer. Jakob had not taken kindly to the news, continuing his ranting that it was all nonsense until Angelika finally managed to calm him down. It was only after Lorita explained to him the ways that this might help Wilhelm slowly regain his sanity that the younger Grimm agreed, on the condition that Lorita report to him daily with any changes.

"I hope this works," Lorita mumbled and Baldwinn, perched on her shoulder as always, rubbed his head against her cheek comfortingly. "I don't care which of them it proves wrong so long as things begin to return to normal. I cannot bear this tension."

The faerie girl stopped at the inn to leave an annoyed looking Baldwinn in her room and pick up the basket of food she had asked the innkeeper to prepare for her. Once this was done she made her way again to Wilhelm's house. This time when she knocked she only received a "Come in, Lorita," and she let herself in. Wilhelm was sitting at the desk, writing in his stained and battered journal.

Fearing what this meant, Lorita moved cautiously toward him. "Will, is everything all right?"

Wilhelm gave a dull rasp that she had learnt was as close as he could achieve to laughter anymore. "Don't worry, it's not her controlling my hand this time," he said, pausing in his writing long enough to glance over his shoulder at her before resuming his work. "I'm writing of my own accord."

"Another tale of magic?" Lorita asked, eager this time as she rushed to stand beside him and deposited the basket on the corner of the desk. She had read many of his tales over the past month and enjoyed every one. It had been a long time since he had penned anything besides the orders the queen had sent him, so the fact that he was working on his tales again must only be a good omen. "What is this one about?"

"A lonely woodsmen in want of a child," Wilhelm said and she could see his shallow smile, "who befriends a faerie. The faerie gives him a seed, which grows a tree, and from the tree emerges a beautiful daughter who does not age."

Lorita froze as Wilhelm set down his quill and turned to look at her. When she finally regained her voice, she asked, "You're writing of me?"

Wilhelm nodded. "Well, if it's alright with you, of course," he added. "But I was thinking of how you said you tell the truth and no one believes you, so I thought maybe if I included it in my tales people might be more willing to listen. People do usually believe any tale I spin. Or at least they used to. They don't as much anymore, so I suppose this might have a reverse effect..."

Before Wilhelm could say anything further, Lorita had thrown her arms around his neck. The elder Grimm choked in surprise and patted her back awkwardly with one hand. Lorita finally released him and stepped back, her cheeks flushed and a broad smile on her face. "Oh Wilhelm, this is certainly the most wonderful thing anyone has done for me," she said excitedly. "Thank you."

Feeling embarrassed, Wilhelm cleared his throat and shrugged. "It's repayment for you putting up with me all this time," he said off-handedly and then his eyes fell on the basket. "Is that the food? It smells good."

Smiling, Lorita carried the basket over to his dining table, which had grown dusty from disuse. After cleaning it off she set out the food and they sat down to a small meal, talking idly in a way more companionable than ever before. When the food was gone and the sun was fading, they continued to chat by the candlelight.

"How is Aurora?" Wilhelm asked quite suddenly, startling Lorita with his ill-disguised sombre tone.

"Well enough," Lorita answered. "She is still healthy and bright and so adorable. But she misses you a lot. You can sometimes catch her frowning when she thinks no one is looking, and Jakob says she cries in her sleep sometimes. She's really worried about you." She sighed and tugged at her hair. "The whole family is, really. They try to act normal and go about things but the stress is wearing on all of us. It just doesn't feel right without you being part of the group."

Wilhelm's eyes were dark with pain but he pushed on a guarded smile. "Us, is it? You seem to have meshed into the family well," he commented teasingly.

Lorita knew he was skirting the subject but she humoured him. "Yes, us," she said. "Angelika is my dearest friend and the closest thing I ever knew to a sibling. She is in many ways like a sister to me, and she and Jakob always do try to make me feel like family. It is a nice change after being so alone all these years."

The elder Grimm's expression softened. "I can't imagine what that would be like," he said sadly. "Being alone, I mean. I've always had Jake, since we were kids. I think I almost hated him there for a while when we were young, or at least I convinced myself that I did, but he's always been around. I never really appreciated that until now, now when I can't see him often. I don't know what I'd do if something happened to him."

"Why did you almost hate him?" Lorita asked curiously. Wilhelm had alluded to it before but had never actually told her what had brought it all about.

"When we were kids, we had a younger sister," Wilhelm said slowly and almost subconsciously his hand dipped into his shirt collar and pulled out the silver chain. The locket and ring glimmered mysteriously in the candle's glow. "Her name was Lotte. We were a poor family. Dad died only four years after Lotte was born, an accident at the mill where he worked, and Mother had to support us after that. When she was six, Lotte got the scarlet fever. Mother worked hard to save up money for a doctor and by the time she did Lotte was in terrible shape.

"Lotte was always very attached to me and I couldn't bring myself to leave her, so Mother gave the money to Jake and sent him to find the doctor. Well Jake was a dreamer, from the day he was born, and he met an old man who told him he would trade the money for some magic beans that would heal Lotte. When Jake came home with his beans I was furious. He had let his faerie tale nonsense get the best of him and only a week later Lotte died."

Wilhelm shrugged and tucked the necklace back into his shirt, wiping at his eyes with the back of his hand. "For a long time I blamed Jake for Lotte's death," he said but there was a detached quality in his voice now as he attempted to block out his emotions. "Things were hard between us for a long time, especially after Mother died a few years later. We stuck together because we were all the other had, but we had a very rough time of it. It's gotten better now but there are still scars."

Lorita shook her head tragically. "So that's where 'beans' comes from," she whispered in awe. "It makes sense now."

Wilhelm gave a choked laugh. "It's what we say when something is unbelievable," he explained. "Like those stupid magic beans were. I used to say it to him all the time when he started rambling off into his nonsense stories that couldn't be true, to remind him what happened when he believed that stuff. Of course it all backfired on me with this mess with the witch queen. Jake proved all the faerie tales were true and for a while used beans against me like that. He still uses it against me but now it's back to the way it was, only now he's trying to tell me that what I believe is impossible." He laughed again and murmured, "Not sure if it's ironic or just tragic."

"We have to find some way to end this, Will," Lorita said, a surge of conviction filling her. "We have to end this once and for all. You need to be free of this and be able to be with your family, and they need you back. We need to get rid of _her_."

"She can't be killed," Wilhelm said despondently, slumping back in his chair. "She came back this time, she'll come back again. Besides, she's told me she can't die until I do, and I can't die either. She has me in some sort of immortal torture."

"Why will she live as long as you do?" Lorita asked in confusion.

"I'm not completely sure," Wilhelm replied, frowning. "She says that I am her heart, but I can't quite figure what that means. I suppose she has somehow tied her mortality to mine, although I don't know exactly how she could have done this. The first time her magic came from her mirror, so I guess she could find a way to link her life to another object. It seems only fitting that to kill her I must also die."

"I would consider that far from fitting," Lorita said and the colour had left her cheeks. She had no idea what magic they were facing but if conquering it meant also killing Wilhelm she was not sure it was a battle from which they could prevail. None of them would have the heart to kill Wilhelm. "There must be some other way."

"Doubtful," Wilhelm said with a cold, emotionless laugh. "That seems to be her way, to make things unbearable to face. I do not want to die, but I would rather die than face what she has planned for me. However I cannot kill myself, or else I would have done so by now. I can only die when my heart is dead and she has that."

"No, Will, we will find another way," Lorita said firmly. "If there is one rule to magic, it is that things are never as straightforward as it leads us to believe. There is some other way around this."

"No!"

Wilhelm's abrupt shout made Lorita jump and she looked at him in surprise. His body had quite suddenly gone rigid and his eyes were shut, a look of pain on his face. Lorita instantly understood.

"Stay with me, Will," she said and she reached forward to cup his face in her hands. Wilhelm groaned but he forced his eyes into a squint. "Focus on me. You can block her out. Ignore her."

"In my head," Wilhelm moaned through his clenched teeth. "She's talking."

"You can control this, Will, it's _your_ head," Lorita said. "Stay with me. Don't leave me, Will." Wilhelm made a strangled whine but he fixed her in an intense stare and his hands closed around her upper arms as if to keep himself grounded. Lorita continued to talk to him as his eyes slid in and out of focus. He muttered partial sentences, but Lorita couldn't be sure whether he was talking to her or the voices in his head.

Quite suddenly his grip tightened around her arms like a vice and his body seized. There was a strange noise in his throat and a vibrant red trail escaped from his mouth, staining his pale ski. His eyes rolled back in his head until all Lorita could see was white. "Will! Wilhelm! Stay with me!" Lorita said frantically. The grip on her arms was becoming painful but no matter how she tried, she couldn't escape it. Perhaps she had underestimated Wilhelm's strength. Panicexplode inside of her.

Then just as abruptly as it had all started, Wilhelm's body relaxed everything but the grip on her arms.

"Will?" she ventured tentatively, her voice trembling.

Wilhelm slowly opened his eyes and Lorita gasped. She had never seen eyes as completely empty as Wilhelm's were now. There was no light; no thought; no emotion. It was as though they were dead.

"Will, what -?"

In a voice as desolate as his gaze, Wilhelm said, "She wants you." Before Lorita could react, Wilhelm brought his fist roughly into the side of her face. There was a brief moment of light and pain, and then there was nothing.


	17. Lullaby

**Chapter Sixteen**

_Lullaby_

Jakob paced around his house, trying to keep his shuffling steps quiet since Aurora was napping, while Angelika watched him from the kitchen table. He had been at it almost since the moment he'd woken up.

"Jake, would you sit down?" Angelika asked in exasperation over her sewing. "You're going to drive me mad."

Jakob sighed dramatically but sank into the chair opposite her. "It's past noon, why isn't she here yet?"

"She probably spent the whole night up with Will. You know he doesn't sleep much. She'll be tired, she needs some time to sleep."

Jakob shook his head. "No, something doesn't feel right," he said. "If she's not here by supper I'm going to check on her." Angelika didn't argue it further and returned to her work. Jakob tried to distract himself by working on one of his tales but couldn't focus.

"Papa, are you making another story?" Jakob glanced over his shoulder and saw Aurora climbing out of her bed, her eyes still heavy from sleep. She was gazing intently at the quill in his hand and then glancing up to his face questioningly. Without waiting for a response she crossed the room and clambered into his lap, eyeing the marks on the page. "What's it about?"

Jakob smiled at the sleepy child and laid the quill aside. "It's about a young boy named – Jack – who bought some magic beans," he explained and in the corner of his eye he saw Angelika look up in recognition.

"Why'd he buy 'em?" Aurora asked, suddenly wide awake. Stories of magic always seemed to captivate her.

"Well…" Jakob said lamely, stalling for time while his mind wildly invented. He honestly hadn't thought of a plot this far yet. "Well he was supposed to buy something to help his family, because they were poor. A cow, it was. But an old man said the beans were magic and would make his family rich, so Jake – I mean Jack – bought them instead."

Aurora nodded him on, mercifully unassuming about the tongue slip. "Did they work?"

"Um – sort of. When he got home, his family was angry that he had not bought the cow. His broth – er, _mother_ threw the beans away." Jakob smiled, an idea suddenly occurring to him. "She threw them out the window and they landed in the garden. During the night, while they were all asleep, they grew into a beanstalk."

"A magic one?" Aurora asked hopefully.

"A giant one. It reached all the way up into the clouds and higher. Jack's mother sent him to get a piece of the clouds, because she thought that would make them rich. So Jack climbed up into the sky, but when he go there he found a castle sitting in the clouds, where an evil giant lived."

For another half hour Jakob passed the time by entertaining Aurora with more of the tale of Jack and his beanstalk. After Aurora had heard her fill of the story, Jakob set about recording it all in his journal, elaborating the plot in ways that he had not thought to touch on before. He was able to keep himself preoccupied like this until nearly suppertime.

"She still has not come, Briar Rose," Jakob said quietly to Angelika. "I am going to see her."

By this time Angelika looked anxious as well and she nodded. "Hurry though," she cautioned and glanced out the window. "The sun's set early tonight and it makes me uneasy."

Jakob followed her gaze and saw that the sky was already turning dark, thick clouds blocking out what was left of the light along the horizon. He nodded and set out quickly for the inn, inwardly hoping to find Lorita still asleep in her room. When he reached the door he inhaled sharply and then knocked. For a long minute there was silence and then he heard a strange, scratching noise. Alarmed, Jakob forgot civility and opened the door. A black streak shot through the crack, and within seconds had run down into the tavern. Jakob's heart stopped when he realised what it was.

"Baldwinn," he breathed. It looked as though Lorita had yet to return to her room. In a second Jakob had gone after the fox, knowing where the creature was headed. When the younger Grimm reached his brother's house, the fox was running from the door to the windowsill, trying to get in.

"Will?" Jakob shouted, hammering on the door. There was no answer. "Will? Lorita? Hello!" Jakob's heart was racing and finally he grasped the door handle. To his surprise it turned easily, bizarre since Wilhelm had taken to locking everyone out of his home, and with a terrible sense of foreboding he opened the door.

The house was deserted. Nothing moved besides the new entrants. On Wilhelm's table was an empty basket and dishes, while the desk held a familiar journal and a rag covered in smears of dried blood. Beyond this there were no signs of life.

"Where could they be?" Jakob said in horror. Baldwinn was scurrying from one object to another, sniffing them madly. Jakob watched him apprehensively having concluded long ago that the fox was as intelligent as any human and was certainly able to understand them. "Baldwinn, the blood on the rag, can you tell who's it is?"

The fox nosed it and then bobbed his head. "Is it Lorita's?" This time Baldwinn shook his head. Jakob let out a short breath of relief. He'd been afraid that Wilhelm had hurt Lorita in his insanity. Of course they still had no idea where the two of them had gone to.

"Where else could they be?" Jakob yelled into the empty house. Despairingly, he crossed to the desk and examined the journal, which had been left lying open, the quill still lying atop the exposed pages. The sight of the shabby quill, stained with both black and scarlet, made Jakob's stomach twist but he brushed it aside to read the writing. Although the handwriting was extremely shaky, there was no mistaking its author. Curious, Jakob read a few lines and his eyes widened.

"_Mein Gott_, he was writing her," he gasped. "The story of the woodsman and his faerie daughter. Remarkable."

Intrigued, he flipped back a page to look at the other stories. What he saw made him flich back in shock. The page was covered in overlapping black print, so convoluted that it was almost entirely illegible. However the most frightening part was the single line of text written over the black, its ink an ominous dusty scarlet. _Kill Jakob_. Written in blood.

In a rush, Wilhelm's words struck him. _I don't want to kill you!_ This was it, Jakob could deny it no longer. And if all of what Wilhelm had said was true then they were all in great danger.

"I need to get home."

Jakob bolted out of the house and ran for home, the sable fox racing at his heels. The blackened sky, the empty streets, the silent village were of no concern to him. He only knew he needed to reach his family.

"Angelika! Aurora!" Jakob yelled as he burst through the door. There was no answer. Blind with panic, he ran into the adjoining room where only minutes ago his family had been peacefully enjoying their time. Instead he found Angelika spread on the floor. Kneeling at her side, Jakob instantly put his ear to her chest and was relieved to hear a heartbeat, but she did not rouse when he moved her. A sickening sense of déjà vu seized him, remembering a time many years ago when he had last seen her in this state. And he was certain it was caused by the same person.

"Aurora!" Jakob cried, looking around desperately for her. "Aurora, where are you?"

"Pretty child, fast asleep."

Jakob spun to face the door and saw a cloaked figure standing in the doorframe, a blanket-wrapped bundle in its arms. Though most of his face was in shadow, below the rim of the hood was a twisted smile.

"Let my daughter go," Jakob growled and took a step forward. In a lithe move the figure turned just slightly to show that there was a knife held against Aurora's throat. Jakob froze.

"Let her go, I just might do," the figure jeered. "But perhaps a game. Guess my name and I shall set her free."

"You are _Herr_ Prinz, I recognize your voice," Jakob said confidently.

The figure laughed and jerked its head so the hood slipped off, revealing the youthful face and hollow eyes. "Clever clever Jakob Grimm," Prinz taunted. "You know me well but that is not my name. The child stays with me."

"Please," Jakob begged, nauseous at the sight of his blissfully sleeping girl with the blade against her neck. "Please, leave her be. She doesn't need to be part of this. Take me, I will come without a fight if you leave her out of this."

"Oh you will join us," Prinz said confidently. "But not yet. She needs time to prepare for you. To be ready for revenge. So you should rest now, take a nap. Save your strength. Join us when you're through."

"No!" Jakob shouted angrily. Prinz ignored him and with a deft hand pulled something from the oddly shaped pouch on his belt. A flute. Putting it to his lips, he blew and with the very first note Jakob's legs failed him. His thoughts were thick and his muscles would no longer respond. Before the end of the first phrase an overwhelming fatigue had carried his mind into sleep.


	18. Preparations

**Chapter Seventeen**

_Preparations_

Everything was cold, dark, and hard; the ground, her body, the sounds, even the smells. Lorita tried to move but her body was stiff and would not shift. Desperately she searched her mind, trying to decipher where this place could be. All she could remember was the throbbing pain in her head.

"You have served me so well, my precious Wilhelm."

The sickeningly sweet voice made Lorita's mind feel foggy again but the final word brought everything to a sudden halt. Wilhelm! Everything fell into place now. She had been with Wilhelm and the queen had entered his mind. He had said something and then hit her._She wants you_. That must be where she was now, she was with _her._

Feeling her head throb as she did it, Lorita forced her eyes open. She could see she was in a wide circular room made of grey stones. In front and to her left was a throne that looked as though it had suffered great damages and been repaired insufficiently. Across from the chair was a small wooden door set into the wall. Between the two was a low table that was bare. Against the left wall was a small vanity and the right was a large gilded mirror that reflected the room in its surface. Beside the mirror was a golden plinth, holding an indescribable mass of crimson that seemed to be twitching methodically. However it was not so much the furnishings as the figures that caught Lorita's attention.

Standing in front of the throne was a tall, slender woman in a scarlet ball gown. Long brown curls were wrapped within an elaborate golden headpiece to reveal her pale neck. Her back was to Lorita, facing the only other person in the room. Wilhelm's eyes were slightly glazed as he stared back at the queen in silent admiration.

Self-awareness gradually seeped back into Lorita and she examined herself. She was sitting as though unceremoniously dropped against the wall of the room almost behind the throne. Her thin dress was a little tattered and her hair looked dirty. Most alarming though, were the thick ropes that held her wrists together and likewise bound her ankles. Twine cords ran from her bonds and were tied around a metal ring set in the wall at her side. She was a prisoner.

Panic began to set in and Lorita tried to slide her hands out of the ropes. They were a tight fit and the most she managed to do was rub the skin on her wrists till it was red. The metal ring clicked tauntingly against the stone and she let out a choked sob.

"Oh Wilhelm, look, our guest has awoken."

Lorita looked up to see that the queen had turned to her. She was beautiful, with smooth milky skin and dark, deep eyes. But there was something lurking around her smile that made Lorita uneasy even while she was slightly mesmerised.

"What do you want with me?" Lorita asked shakily.

The queen's smile grew and she took a few steps toward her captive. "How old are you, child?" she asked in a kind voice that compelled Lorita to answer before realizing she'd spoken.

"Twenty-four," she said. Then, angry that she had been ensorcelled, she added, "Which is nowhere near your own age, I hear."

"Yes," the queen said in agreement. "But you could be, couldn't you? You could live longer than I and still look young and beautiful. You cannot know how much I desire to possess your natural gift." Lorita felt the last bit of warmth leave her as she realised where this was leading. The queen seemed to notice the change in her expression and for a moment her smile was wicked.

"No, you wretched, miserable hag!" Lorita screamed in rage. "No amount of magic or sorcery will hide the fact that you are a terrible witch! All the beauty in the world could not disguise your evil or make you look desirable! You are an old cow!"

The queen's smile faltered. "Wilhelm, we cannot have her speaking to me in this way. See her mouth is shut."

Wilhelm nodded. "Yes, my queen." As he walked toward Lorita his eyes never left her face. When she gazed back she was shocked to see that there was life in them again. He was acting of his own accord now, clearly free from the queen's spell. Lorita thought her heart must be breaking.

"Will, please, no," she sobbed. "Please, Will." For a moment it looked as though his lip quivered but his stride did not slow. Lorita was openly crying by the time he knelt beside her, trapping her small body easily against the wall. His hands found the hem of her dress and he tore a long strip from it, his ears deaf to Lorita's choked pleas. She tried to shy away as his hands brought the thick cloth near her face but he pressed himself closer to her and she could not move. The dirty strip was forced into her mouth and as he leaned around her to tie it at the back of her head she could feel his warm breath on her ear.

"I'm sorry. I didn't mean for you to be involved."

The whisper caught her off guard but when she tried to turn and look at Wilhelm he gripped her chin roughly in his hand and jerked her head the other way. His hands returned to the knots and he hissed, "The heart is _her _heart. Kill it and kill her. Thank you for everything you've done."

Wilhelm pulled away, the gag securely tied, and he met Lorita's gaze as he stood up. She saw the purest sincerity in his eyes. Then his face was once again blank as he turned and walked back to the queen. As the two of them talked Lorita's eyes drifted to the golden plinth beside the mirror. The red muscle throbbed rhythmically, betraying what it truly was now that Wilhelm had given her the idea. That was it; that was how they would get rid of the queen. Then they could live in peace and Wilhelm would be free. They just needed to stab her heart.

There was a sudden disturbance as the door opened. A man that Lorita recognized as _Herr _Prinz came in, carrying a blanketed bundle in his arms. He looked winded but very pleased with himself.

"I have it, my queen," he announced. "I collected it. Then, as you asked, I waited for that Jakob Grimm. He knows we have taken it. I put him to sleep but he will awaken within the hour and be on his way. I have done it all for you, my queen, just as you asked it."

"Wonderful," the queen cooed eagerly. "Set it on the table. We must prepare." The man nodded and hurried to lay the bundle on the tabletop. As he shifted it the blanket fell away and Lorita saw the slumbering child.

"Aurora!"

Although Lorita had spoken, or rather had tried to through the cloth, the shout had not come from her. Wilhelm's face had lost all colour and he took a step toward the table. Before he could move further the queen had grabbed his shoulders, spun him back to her, pulled his face down and pushed her lips to his. Like a candle being snuffed, Wilhelm's face lost all expression and the life drain from his eyes. He was hers once more.

"Wilhelm," the queen said when she broke the kiss. "Who is the fairest of them all?"

"You are, my queen," Wilhelm replied in an emotionless voice.

The queen smiled. "See, dear prince, no love conquers my own. Your love of the child has not beaten mine, just as your love of the faerie did not." Lorita's eyes widened at this but no one in the room was paying her any heed. "Now Wilhelm, Friedrich, let us prepare for my revenge against Jakob Grimm."

Lorita stared at the face of Aurora, so deeply asleep that she appeared dead. _Please hurry, Jakob._


	19. Into the Queen's Revenge

**Chapter Eighteen**

_Into the Queen's Revenge_

Jakob rolled onto his back, feeling warm and content. Sure, the floor was uncomfortable, but he had slept deep and dreamlessly for the first time in ages. Now he wanted nothing more than to drift back into that utter peacefulness, despite already feeling well-rested.

Still, there was something tugging at the back of his mind and stopping him from escaping into his undisturbed rest again. What was that thought that was being so annoying? He couldn't be sure, but he could tell that it was something urgent he was supposed to remember. Oh well, perhaps he would think of it later...

Ready to go back to sleep, Jakob stretched his muscles one last time to loosen them and felt his hand brush something warm and smooth. Acutely curious, he glanced to see what it was and his gaze landed on the still face of a woman.

"Angelika!" he exclaimed. All remaining thoughts of sleep left him and he scrambled to her side. "Briar Rose, wake up, please," he begged but she didn't move. Jakob suddenly remembered his déjà vu and the way he had awoken her that time. Lifting her face gently, he pressed his lips to hers. Then he opened his eyes hopefully. There was no change.

"Angelika, please." Jakob cradled her body, frantic half-formed thoughts racing through his head. What had happened to her? Why wouldn't she wake up? She wasn't dead, so what was going on? Was it the same thing that had happened to him? If so, why was he awake but she was not? But that must be it, it couldn't be anything else. It had to be the piper.

"Aurora," Jakob gasped, now recalling the image of her slumbering face with the blade at her throat. He needed to save her. Maybe killing the piper would free Angelika and the piper was most certainly with the queen. This was it. It was time to end this for good.

He carefully scooped Angelika up and laid her on the bed, giving her a final kiss. Then he ran to the closet and lifted his old sword down from the top shelf. Next to it he found a pair of daggers, which he sheathed at his waist and calf. As he turned to leave his house he skirted the sleeping figure of a sable fox curled in the middle of the main room floor.

Nerves stretched to the breaking point, the younger Grimm headed out into the street. The fact that everything was so silent struck him quite suddenly and he looked around apprehensively. He could see a few people out of their houses, but all of them had lain down outside shops and against walls, their faces still. The entire village was fast asleep.

Feeling as though this was a foreboding omen, Jakob took a steadying breath and made his way to the woods on foot. His pace was fast because his mind constantly reminded him that every second that passed was another second where his daughter was in the clutches of the queen and her minion. He had no idea how long he had been asleep and his heart was already hammering with the possibility of what could have happened during that time.

As he stepped into the foliage the leaves seemed to rustle more than usual. The queen's activities had made the trees agitated and they were shifting and creeping across the paths. Finding his way through the forest was more difficult than last time because of it and it felt as though he had been walking forever before he passed the familiar pond. There was an unnatural tension in the air that made Jakob's nerves tingle, the sort of current that seemed to fill the air during a strong lightning storm but magnified tenfold.

It was as he rounded a corner that Jakob caught the first glimpse of the queen's new fortress through a gap in the trees. The lights glowed from the tower window but if there were any voices they could not be heard over the noises outside. Nearly a hundred crows had alighted in the trees around the clearing and the shuffling of their bodies and chatter of their voices would have easily drowned out any conversation.

The sight of the carrion birds made Jakob falter for a second. Horrifying thoughts pervaded his mind and his skin grew cold as he fought to chase them away. He desperately reminded himself that the crows had always nested around this foul place and that their presence did not mean there had been bloodshed here. They were merely anticipating what would come of the dark magic that hung in the area.

Steadying himself, Jakob pushed forward through the brush. In a great rush, every bird screamed into the night and leapt from the branches. Their wings made a clamour as they swirled into the sky and vanished. Jakob, who had jumped back with fright and drawn his sword, stared up at the heavens as the giant streak of black flew away toward the moon in the east.

"Bloody birds," he hissed, straightening up and stepping back into the clearing. His nerves had been pulled taut enough already. He kept his sword raised as he began walking through the clearing, headed for the dark and silent cottage that rested at the base of the tower. If there was to be an entrance to the tower, it would certainly be in there.

A shadow made him look up and he saw a figure peering at him through the tower window. Only a fraction of a second later the face had disappeared but Jakob had seen enough to guess that it was _Herr_ Prinz. Feeling his anxiety rise further, the younger Grimm almost jogged into the cottage. If he was to face dangers he wanted to have them done with already. The growing anticipation of the wait was maddening.

The cottage was as dark and silent as it appeared from the outside. The small windows admitted only a bit of the faint moonlight that managed to pierce the clouds. Nothing stirred within the residence and there were only the most minuscule signs that someone dwelt here. Jakob walked to the stone wall that touched the tower and pressed his hands hopefully to it. It was solid stone, without any indication of a door of any kind. Frantically, he ran his fingers over every inch of the wall but there was nothing.

An unearthly strain of music reached his ears from above and instinctively he flattened his hands against his ears. He was not about to be ensorcelled by that musician again when he was so near to trouble. To fall asleep now would be a death sentence for sure. He crept back to press his back to a wall, watching for any attacker that he could not hear coming. Nothing moved. Then he saw a flicker of movement against the tower wall. Suspicious, he kept his eyes fixed on the area and within seconds the movement occurred again. However to his surprise it was not a moving figure but the wall itself wavering as though it were water blown upon. Before a minute had passed the wall had almost entirely disappeared, leaving a wide archway in its place.

Tentatively, Jakob lifted one hand from his ear. The night was silent once more. Picking up his sword from where he had dropped it, he proceeded cautiously through the arch. Beyond it was a spiral staircase, winding upward and lined with candles that had burnt low in their stands. Suspecting a trap at every step, he walked at a painstakingly slow pace up the ever-winding stair.

Finally, after many long minutes - made longer by his slow speed and growing anticipation - the candles ended. Only a turn further brought him to a heavily shadowed landing that bore a standard wooden door. The door was cracked so that a narrow finger of light extended into the stairs and was the only place where darkness did not reign. The noises from the tower room were muted; faint shuffling of feet and low murmurs of voice. It did not surprise him that this scene looked as though it had been planned out for the most dramatic effect; that seemed like the sort of thing the queen would do. Jakob's body tensed and the intensity in the air was practically pulsing this near to the heart of it all.

Still expecting a trap, he moved slowly toward the door. He reached forward and pulled the door open, instantly retreating several steps with his sword raised in defence. Nothing came running at him, and in fact, besides the creaking door it looked as though nothing had moved in the slightest. His eyes quickly and cautiously took in the sight before him, evaluating the situation.

Most arresting was the queen, in all of her youth and beauty, sitting in her throne and regarding him with a subtle smile. There was a crouched heap just visible at the back of the tower, which then moved and he realized with surprise that it was Lorita, bound and gagged like an animal. Fear was prominent in her eyes and she began shouting inaudible words in his direction around the cloth in her mouth. Against the left wall was the familiar mirror, restored to its former glory, and Wilhelm stood in front of it with an empty gaze. Then laying on a table midway between the door and throne was a sleeping form, a beautiful young face that was serene in its ignorance of danger. His heart leapt.

Jakob made to step forward, compelled by the need to be sure of his daughter's safety, but a second later his head was being jerked back and he felt the cold pressure of a blade on his throat. It was only now that he registered the character that was missing from the scene. He groaned and closed his eyes at the embarrassment of his naivety.

"I am so glad you could join us, Jakob." The queen's purr made him open his eyes again and he stared at her in hatred. He could feel the piper shifting behind him and a second later his sword was being knocked from his hand. With the knife still at his throat, the piper pulled Jakob's hands behind his back and slipped a loop of rope around his wrists, pulling it to a painful tightness. Next a loop of rope was lowered over his head and drawn snugly against his neck. The knife moved from his throat to point threateningly into his back. "Now we are all here."

"What do you want with my daughter?" Jakob growled, trying to jerk out of the piper's grip but the rope tightened and he choked. Once he stopped moving the cord loosened and he sucked in a sharp breath.

"She is a most beautiful child," the queen said. She stood and walked to the table, brushing her fingertips along Aurora's rosy cheeks. Jakob bared his teeth and fought against Prinz again but when he could no longer breathe he had to suffice himself with only glaring angrily. "Her youth and beauty could be an asset to anyone. You see, the faerie has already deemed that she will give me her immortality." At this Jakob's eyes turned to Lorita but there were tears in her eyes as she shook her head frantically. "But before I achieve this immortality, there is something further I want. These years since my precious Friedrich freed me from the mirror, my age has begun to show. If I am to live forever I must do it with my beauty and youth intact. Your dear child will provide that for me."

"No! You can't – " Jakob tried to charge at her but the rope pulled so tightly it tore at his skin and he gagged. Unable to breath, his knees sagged beneath him and he fell. Prinz knelt behind him and straightened him till he was kneeling as well before loosening the noose just slightly. There were tears in Jakob's eyes as he fought to breath and looked up at the queen. "Please, not my daughter," he gasped out. "Anything but this."

"No, Jakob, more than this," she said menacingly. "You will watch as her heart is cut from her chest and I eat it. Then I will kill the faerie and take her immortality. Then once my power is completely restored you will live and watch as my reign spreads with the memories of your helplessness forever." The queen smiled and gestured to Wilhelm. The elder Grimm moved silently to the table and lifted a sharp knife over the sleeping child. Jakob felt certain his heart had frozen in his chest.

"No!" he screamed but his brother seemed not to hear him. "No, Will, please! You can't! Not Aurora!" Wilhelm's eyes flickered but then he raised the knife over his head and began speaking in a rough voice, saying words from a dark and archaic language that made the air vibrate. Jakob was fighting so strongly now that the rope had almost completely constricted his airways and there were several puncture marks in his back from the piper's dagger. His face was brilliantly red as he struggled for breath and the edges of his vision were turning black. Slowly his eyelids became too heavy to hold up and he felt too tired to fight anymore.

"Jakob!"

The scream was so startling that Jakob forced his eyes open out of mere curiosity. He spotted a pair of young eyes staring at him and it took him a few moments to gather enough of his wits to recognize Lorita's face. The rope that bound her to the wall had frayed and broken and she had pulled the cloth from her mouth. Her eyes were wide with horror as she stared at him.

"Jakob!" Lorita screamed again. "The heart is _her_ heart! You have to save Aurora. You have to save Wilhelm!"

Jakob's eyes turned to the table in the centre of the room and once again the severity of what he was seeing managed to penetrate the fog in his mind. That was his brother, about to plunge a knife into the heart of his daughter. Jakob was the only one who could save them now.

Twisting his arms uncomfortably against the bonds, Jakob grabbed a hold of the dagger sheathed at his waist and, before the piper had noticed the movement, Jakob shoved it back into the younger man's abdomen. The piper gasped and released the ropes, and a great rush of breath filled Jakob's lungs and relieved his suffocated brain. Spinning on his knees he tore at the piper's shirt and then ripped the golden stake from his heart and the man collapsed onto his back, his fingers clawing weakly at the hole in his chest.

"No!" shrieked the queen but before she could move she had been knocked to the ground. Lorita, still tied at hand and foot, had managed to crawl toward her and drag her to the ground. She now struggled with the queen, trying determinedly to keep the queen's mouth from emitting any words that could further transfix Wilhelm. The elder Grimm's arms were trembling as he continued chanting, seemingly oblivious to the chaos around him.

Pulling the ropes off himself as he ran, Jakob tore to the mirror and the golden plinth where he could see the heart, beating erratically on its stand. Looking around for a weapon, Jakob caught a sight in the mirror that momentarily distracted him. In its reflection he could see himself and the piper's prone figure and Wilhelm standing over the white figure on the table and Lorita as she fought on the floor, but what he couldn't see was who she was fighting. The queen bore no reflection in the mirror.

"She came _from_ the mirror," he breathed, his mind heavy with the understanding. She had no reflection in this mirror because it was where she had come from. Jakob now recalled that when the mirror had shattered each piece still showed a fragment of her. Although her true body had gone she still existed inside her mirror. That was how she'd been revived. She had come out of the mirror.

Seized by inspiration, Jakob threw himself against the glass. The queen let out a scream as it shuddered and under a second attack it cracked and rained glass onto Jakob. Stooping down, Jakob grabbed a long and thin piece of the mirror and turned to face the heart. This was it, this was _her _heart, this was how he would kill her and they would be rid of her forever. Wilhelm would be free and they would finally live happily ever after.

With a roar, Jakob sank the glass shard into the pulsing organ. As blood began to leak from it, the heart disappeared and left him with just a piece of stained glass. He quickly turned to watch as the queen let out an ear-splitting scream that shook dust from the ceiling. Wilhelm's arms relaxed and he staggered away from the table. The queen's shrieks grew in pitch and the knife fell from Wilhelm's grip. Quite suddenly the front of his tunic was dyed scarlet as the queen's scream reached its climax. And, with a faint smile on his face, Wilhelm Grimm collapsed to the floor.


	20. Over, All Over

**Chapter Nineteen**

_Over, All Over_

"Will!"

In horror, Jakob dropped the weapon in his hand, staring at his crimson palm as though it had betrayed him. This couldn't be happening. Not again. He staggered backward, glass cracking under his boots, until he collapsed against the empty frame of the mirror.

The heart, the heart he had just stabbed had not been the queen's. It was Wilhelm's. Everything that Wilhelm had tried to tell him, about the queen stealing his heart and using it to control him, it had all been true. And now because Jakob hadn't believed him, his brother had died.

For the second time in his life, in the same place as before, Jakob Grimm had stabbed his brother in the heart.

"No!" This scream had not come from Jakob, who was by now too stunned to move, let alone speak. Lorita, still fighting with the wailing queen, had realized what had happened and it was her voice that had risen. The faerie stared at Wilhelm's prone figure, feeling as though her own heart had been run through. He had lied to her; he had known it was his own heart. He had given her the hint to kill him. Knowing what the queen planned for him, Wilhelm had chosen death and had found a way to freedom. And it was all the queen's fault.

"You horrible hag!" Lorita growled, turning her attention back to the shrieking woman who was struggling desperately to free herself. It was an unfair fight, as Lorita was so much smaller than her and still bound hand and foot, but there was a rage and purpose fuelling the little faerie woman now. With an angry scream, Lorita seized up the knife that Wilhelm had dropped and plunged it into the queen's chest.

The scream that the mirror queen let out was so strong and terrible that it sent Lorita scrambling away, her arms pressed protectively over her ears. The queen thrashed and her hands clawed at her face. Her hand yanked the blade from her bosom and when she spotted the blood dripping from it her screams rose once again in pitch. Her skin turned ashen and slowly began to rot from her bones, the hair fell from her head and laid in heaps of white cobwebs where they cradled her skull. With a final, ground-shaking scream that echoed long after it had been emitted, the corpse stilled and left only a dusty skeleton in a wrapping of dirty cloth.

"Aurora," Jakob breathed instantly and he heaved himself up to rush to the table. The child's face was still unmoved but she was breathing. Jakob scooped her up and almost sobbed in relief as he heard her groan sleepily. Aurora curled herself in his arms and her hands gripped the front of his tunic. "Oh Aurora," he sighed and held her tightly to his chest.

Lorita's gasp brought Jakob's gaze up from his daughter's face. She had crawled past the skeleton and was crouched at Wilhelm's side, her hands, still bound together, touching his face. The elder Grimm was sprawled on his back, one hand resting over the spot of his chest where the maroon was darkest. His body was still in death but there was the slightest trace of a smile still on his lips.

"No, Wilhelm." The faerie's words were a sigh as she grasped one of his hands in both of her smaller ones. Jakob came to kneel opposite her, Aurora still cradled against his body, and the true grief began to finally wash over him. Tears shook his body and as he gazed down at Wilhelm's frozen face in despair.

Wilhelm was gone. The still bright stains in the tunic betrayed that beneath its surface the Grimm's life blood was seeping out of him. Stabbed in the heart, just like the last time. By the same hand. Jakob had killed his brother.

Lorita was crying as fiercely as Jakob and with a choked breath she let her head fall onto Wilhelm's chest. Jakob freed one hand and lifted Wilhelm's from over his heart, gripping the scarlet palm tightly as though he would never release it again. Too many times had Jakob seen his brother die and the most painful thing of this was knowing that this time there was no escape. Forever gone was the invincible Wilhelm Grimm.

"No, it cannot be!" Lorita's sudden exclamation made Jakob jump. She had sat up and was pushing her hair away from her blood-stained face. Looking around frantically, her eyes locked on the dagger hilt protruding from Jakob's boot and she lunged forward and drew it. She sawed the ropes away from her wrists and when they fell she dragged herself closer to Wilhelm's body. The dagger disappeared beneath the collar of Wilhelm's tunic and with a ripping sound she cut the fabric away from his body.

The sight of the flesh beneath it was gruesome. It was almost entirely red, the blood still gleaming in the candlelight. The old wound that had decorated Wilhelm's stomach, although smaller than the last time Jakob had seen it, was filled with a pool of blood. And now there was a deep chasm in his chest to match with it.

Seeming to be completely blind to this, Lorita had placed the dagger on her palm and pulled it swiftly across before Jakob could protest. The tissue split and her own blood ran a soft golden-green. Then, with a look of set determination on her face, she pressed her bleeding hand on the wound in Wilhelm's chest.

Almost instantly her body began trembling, the muscles visibly flexed. A pale light surrounded her form as well as Wilhelm's, and heat rolled off them so heavily that Jakob had to drop his brother's hand as his skin began to blister. Seconds later a wave of heat pushed him harder and sent him sliding backward into the table.

Jolted by the motion, Aurora groaned and blinked around sleepily. Her bright eyes fixed on the two other figures, ensconced in their soft glow, and she asked, "Papa, what?"

Jakob shook his head. "I don't know."

To his eyes, it suddenly seemed that Lorita was growing larger. Her skin shifted from pale white to a sunny gold in the light and her skirts lifted from her ankles to her knees. The features of her face changed, becoming more angular and losing a great deal of their rounded smoothness. Now looking like an entirely different person, she leaned forward and placed her lips to Wilhelm's pale ones.

The explosion of light that filled the room burned Jakob's eyes even after he had closed them. Aurora let out a squeal and Jakob buried her face in his chest tightly. It seemed forever that there was nothing but light and when it finally faded Jakob could perceive nothing but dark. There were scuffles, the faint motions of fabric against stone, but no voices that he could hear. Gradually, shapes began to materialize in the darkness and he could make out a blurred form that he guessed was Lorita, still bent over a prone figure.

A voice whispered, "What?" and was promptly cut off by a "shhh," in a voice that Jakob couldn't place. "Slowly," the second voice spoke up again. The motions were more audible now and after blinking several times the scene finally came into focus.

Standing directly in front of him was a young woman he had never seen before. She appeared to be in her mid-twenties, with long golden hair and eyes bright with youthfulness despite their knowledge and maturity. However the oddity of her offered him no distraction from the second figure. She was helping the man to his feet and although he looked incredibly disoriented, there was no mistaking him.

"Will?" Jakob gasped, not daring to believe it possible. Aurora extracted herself from her father's grip and, on seeing Wilhelm, her face lit up.

"_Onkel _Will!" she screamed and ran into his arms. He lifted her and held her to his chest, smiling with tears in his eyes. She pulled back to examine his face and traced her fingers over him. "_Onkel _Will, you're all better." She pressed her ear to his chest and then looked back up at him. "Your heart works 'gain."

"Yes, I know," he agreed in a voice unladen with the pain and stress that years had formerly given it. He hugged Aurora again and as he did his gaze moved past her to Jakob. The brothers met eyes and there was an identical look of shock and incredulity on both of their faces.

Jakob stood up slowly at the same moment that Wilhelm lowered Aurora to the floor. The brothers stared at each other in silence for a long time and then simultaneously they moved together and embraced. Tears escaped them both as they clung to each other.

After several stretched, emotional minutes, they finally pulled apart and Jakob surveyed his brother in awe. His bare chest was smooth and flawless, no traces of the wounds or scars. The colour had returned to him and his eyes were bright with life. He looked ten years younger. But most importantly he was alive.

"I know," Wilhelm said and he sounded just as surprised as anyone else. "The darkness was everywhere and it was pushing me away. I was going to let it take me, because I was afraid of what the queen might try to make me do if I lived. But then I heard a voice in the dark speaking to me. She called me back, brought me back into the light. And then I was alive again and she was there." He turned to look at the woman next to him with a smile, taking her hand in his. "Thank you, Lorita."

"Lorita?" Jakob asked in shock. He stared at the woman for a long time and eventually began to find the similarities in this alien face. "_Mein Gott_, it is you. But you are no longer a child."

The woman laughed. "I finally look my age," she said, "because I no longer possess my faerie life. I've given it to Wilhelm." She smiled shyly and drew herself against the elder Grimm's side. "The magic of the faeries' was in my blood. I heard Wilhelm breathe as I laid my head on his chest and sensed that there was still life in him. So I gave a share of my life and youth to him."

For a long time Jakob could only stare. This was just a little too much magic for even his fantastical mind to comprehend right now. Finally Wilhelm grinned and put a hand on his brother's shoulder.

"Don't worry, Jake, I don't get it either," he said. "All that matters is that we're still alive and this is all over."

"Over," Jakob echoed, his eyes panning over the dead piper and the skeleton. It really was over; this was the end of the nightmare. He met his brother's gaze and his relief was mirrored there. "Let's go home."

Jakob lifted Aurora onto his hip, Wilhelm wrapped an arm around Lorita's waist, and the four of them left the cursed place for the last time.


	21. A Damn Good Name

**Chapter Twenty**

_A Damn Good Name_

Outside, the gloomy cloud covering had parted and allowed the moonlight to lift the shadows. The trees stood still except for when their leaves fluttered in the breeze, calm and restful like a tree should be. After all these years of anxiousness, the ancient plants were getting the chance to be still once more.

When they once more reached the village everything appeared normal again. The figures that had been laying prone in the streets had retreated into their houses and candles flickered through windows as the families settled for the night. A few of them who spotted the entering party through the windows called cheerful good-nights to them before turning back in. There was a sense of ease and comfort that the brothers had never before known among these people.

Wilhelm shook his head. "I have never seen this place so relaxed, or even this close to normal since... since..."

"Since the last time we defeated the witch," Jakob finished for him and the two exchanged haunted glances.

Lorita looked between them and said, "Only this time their happiness will last." Both men gave her a grateful look and Wilhelm drew her closer to his side and kissed her lightly on the brow.

"You know, it's a good thing it is night and everyone has retired," Jakob added after a moment and his eyes panned over their group. "We make for a very odd sight." Jakob, his clothing tattered and his body peppered with cuts, was carrying his daughter with an exuberant smile on his face despite his poor appearance. Wilhelm, after not having been seen outside his house in weeks, was looking healthier even than the first time he had come to Marbaden although he was dressed in his only dirty pants, since the shredded fabric of his tunic had fallen away in the tower. Then in the curve of his arm was a beautiful young woman in a too small dress that none of the villagers would have recognized seeing, although if they looked closely enough they would have noticed something vaguely familiar in her bright eyes. They were most certainly a bizarre group.

Wilhelm, however, shrugged at the comment. "Don't be bothered, Jake," he said simply. "We are Grimms. They should be used to oddities from us by now and they would think nothing more on it than that." This drew laughter from them all and its effect was strong since none of the adults had known a genuine laugh in weeks.

As they drew nearer to Jakob's house, the younger Grimm's steps quickened and had soon put a great distance between himself and the other two. He needed to see his wife and know that she was safe as well. The moment he opened the door his eyes scanned the room for only one thing and when he finally found that person, standing near the fire, it felt as though everything was right once more. She ran to him and threw her arms around he and Aurora together and with his free arm Jakob pulled her closely to himself. They stayed in this way for several long minutes until Wilhelm and Lorita reached the house.

When the little family finally separated, Angelika's slightly teary eyes turned to the others. She surveyed Wilhelm in blank wonder for a long minute and it wasn't until he took a small step forward that her revere broke and she embraced him as well, muttering how wonderful it was to finally see him well. Jakob and Lorita's eyes, on the other hand, were on a fifth person who had yet to be addressed.

He was a worn looking man, clearly much older than the Grimms, with shaggy black hair and beard that were liberally streaked with grey. He had a cup of tea in front of him but it was forgotten as his eyes, red as though from tears, examined the group. They kept lingering for a second on Lorita before turning away once more with a look of grief, only to turn back again seconds later. Lorita herself was white and looked quite as though she had seen Death itself.

Angelika had released Wilhelm and her eyes looked to his female companion, her eyes confused. It was only after staring at her for several minutes that her eyes widened and she gasped out, "Lorita?"

This caused the man at the table's gaze to cease drifting and fix solely on the blonde young woman. Angelika was glancing between them as though she knew something more than had been said and the Grimm men could only stare as Lorita stepped forward and the man at the table rose. There was a thick silence as everyone stared, and at the same moment both Wilhelm and Jakob spotted the golden pendant on the man's throat.

"Papa?" Lorita asked in a whisper, as if afraid speaking louder would shatter the vision. The man smiled and in a second she had raced into his arms. When he set her once more on the ground Lorita trailed her fingers over his face and said in wonder, "Papa, how is this possible? You were dead."

"Just as I thought you were, dear child," the man said. "Oh Lorita, I so feared you were gone from me."

"Where have you been all this time?" Lorita asked. Her fingers slipped slowly from his cheek and found the pendant on his neck. She brushed it and then looked up at him in bewilderment. "It cannot be. You were with me all this time. You were Baldwinn."

The man's smile grew. "It was a wise choice in name on your part, dearest," he said and stroked her hair. "Yes, I came with you to watch over you. I could not bear to be parted with you, even if you did not know it was me with you. I could not stand the thought of you being alone in the world that judged you so unfairly."

Wilhelm suddenly began shaking his head. "Wait a moment, I'm not sure that I'm following this," he said. "I may just be slow from being dead for a while there, but could someone explain what on earth is going on here?"

The man's gaze turned on Wilhelm and his eyes narrowed. "You… you're the one who brought my daughter into all of this," he growled and took a step toward him. "You took her into that danger." The man was now walking menacingly toward Wilhelm, and the Grimm, clearly intimidated by the man so much larger than himself, backed against the wall.

"No, Papa, please," Lorita said and hurried to stand in front of her father. "This is not Will's fault, please." The man stopped but his gaze was still mistrusting. Lorita looked between Wilhelm and her father apprehensively and then glanced at Jakob and Angelika for help.

"Why don't we just sit down and talk this out from the beginning?" Jakob suggested and moved to the table. He sat down and settled Aurora on his lap, and when no one else moved he gestured for them to join him. Slowly and hesitantly, everyone else gathered around the table. Jakob stared across at Lorita's father and said, "We'll start." In a rush he quickly recounted everything that had been going on for the last two years, including the details of Wilhelm's condition as his brother had said them. He continued all the way until that night when he had reached the tower but then his voice faltered and he dipped his head. After a moment he looked up again and his face was clearly distressed.

"Sorry," he muttered. "It's – it's still all a bit vivid in my mind." He glanced sideways at his brother but Wilhelm shrugged.

"Sorry Jake, but I don't have any idea what happened," he said. "I – well, you know, I wasn't really in my right mind. I don't remember anything until the very end."

"I'll take it from here," Lorita said and she picked up the loose thread of the story. As she finished up the tale and the series of deaths were disclosed those who had not been present at the time looked horrified, even Baldwinn despite his obvious dislike of Wilhelm. Then she explained how she had sensed life in the elder Grimm and had put her blood into him to restore his life.

"But child, how did you know that would happen?" Baldwinn asked, mystified.

"I didn't, really," Lorita answered. "It was only a theory. You will know that while I've been travelling the country I've been learning everything I could about faerie lore. There were stories that said a faerie's immortality could be transferred to another creature through blood. If it is taken by force it kills the faerie, but if given willingly and with heart, the life force can be shared between the two beings. I surrendered my faerie spirit to give him new life."

"Of course," Baldwinn breathed suddenly and he looked up at Lorita with an abrupt understanding in his eyes. "This is how it happened, how I am here and you are alive."

"I am sensing another story coming," Jakob said with a quiet laugh.

Baldwinn gave the slightest indication of a smile at this comment, but kept his attention on his daughter beside him. "Lorita, I never told you the full story of the circumstances around your birth," he said slowly and there was a look of shame on his face as Lorita's eyes narrowed in confusion. "The bargain I made with the faerie was more complicated. She warned me, when I accepted her gift, that since you were not entirely human you could not live your days out forever in a place where you did not fit. I didn't understand what she meant at the time, so I blindly agreed with her.

"Then on the eve of your thirteenth birthday I went into the forest to gather wood. The faerie found me when I was deep in and told me that the day had come that she had forewarned me of. She said that you had been borne of a tree, and in the forest among the trees is where you belonged. That a life force had been taken from the forest to create you, and that now it was time the force was returned. She wanted to return you to the form of the tree from which you came, and you would spend the rest of your immortality that way.

"I was devastated. I knew your free spirit and that a life without motion or activity would be maddening to you. I tried to plead with her, to convince her to change her judgement but she would not listen to me. 'The imbalance needs to be repaired,' she said to me. I grew angry with her for not listening and I tried to brush her away. I told her that you were my child and you did not belong to her or her trees. This upset her and she told me that if your life would not be submitted to nature then my own would, to repair the imbalance. That was when she transformed me into a fox.

"I was confused at first why I did not become a tree, but she said this was not where my spirit had come from and therefore not where it could be sent. However she found a way to make it a punishment. I have spent the last eight years at your side, watching but unable to protect you as the world shunned you. I could not tell you who I was and watched as you grieved for me all these years. It was as much a torment as could ever be conceived. The faerie also attached one final point to her curse; that so long as my faerie child lived I would remain in the form of a creature of the forest. It was not until your death that I would know a human life again, because then your spirit would be returned to the trees and the balance corrected."

Baldwinn stopped and tugged at his beard, surveying his daughter with glistening eyes. "The pain I felt when I woke to find myself human again was unbelievable. I was certain that you were dead, dead in that cursed place and I had once again not been there to protect you."

"But I am alive, and you are here," Lorita said, touching her father's arms. "How is it so?"

"Because you are no longer my faerie child," Baldwinn said earnestly. "You have given up your faerie self. You are my human child and we are free of our debts to that forest faerie." He pulled her face close to his and pressed a kiss to her brow.

There was a stunned silence for a minute as everyone pondered over this and it was Lorita who finally broke the quiet. "You know, Papa, in a way you owe Will thanks," she said and Baldwinn frowned at this. "It was he who inspired me to give up my immortality, so it is because of him that you and I can be together like this again."

Everyone glanced to Wilhelm and as Baldwinn gave a non-committal grunt both Lorita and the elder Grimm simultaneously lifted a hand to hide amused smiles. Managing a calmer expression, Wilhelm turned to Baldwinn and said, very seriously, "I think it is I who owes you gratitude, sir. Your daughter is the reason I am still alive. Even before tonight she has been saving my life, especially over the past few weeks. She is the one who helped me cling to my sanity and stopped me from killing us all."

"Yes, why did you do that?" Jakob asked suddenly, turning to Lorita. "I mean not that I'm ungrateful, but I never thought you two were very keen on each other."

"We weren't," Lorita answered with a shrug, but she looked a little awkward now.

Angelika looked as sceptical as her husband felt and she raised an eyebrow. "Yet you daily risked your life to help a man you did not care for. Including what you did tonight, not knowing if the faerie lore was true and that it would not have terrible consequences for you."

"The game is up," Wilhelm said abruptly, grinning mischievously. "The truth is that as much as she hates me, Lorita is also madly in love with me."

"Will," Lorita sighed and shook her head but, although everyone waited for it, no denial of his statement came.

"No," Jakob and Baldwinn gasped together. Lorita's face turned very red. "I would never have believed it," Jakob continued. "Well at least not before tonight. And Will, do you - ?"

Every eye in the room, save Lorita's, turned to Wilhelm and it was his turn to look uncomfortable. For a long time they only stared while he opened and closed his mouth several times without uttering a syllable. Finally he looked over at Jakob and said, "Beans, brother. Your crazy tales. It happened just like you said it would, I fell in love with a pretty lass grown from a magic bean. You have my permission to be smug."

The smiles on Jakob and Angelika's faces were nothing to the one that lit up Lorita's visage. Wilhelm smiled back at her even though he appeared still embarrassed. Baldwinn looked sullen for a moment but after seeing his daughter's smile his expression softened.

Wilhelm slid closer to Lorita and took her hand in his. "What do you think, Miss Lorita, would you like to become a Grimm?" he asked her in a low whisper.

"Become a Grimm," Lorita repeated, putting on a thoughtful expression. "I'm not sure I can put up with you for the rest of my life." She paused but there was an impish smile on her face and she squeezed his hand. "It's a good name though, isn't it?"

Wilhelm's face split in a bright grin. "It's a damn good name."


	22. Epilogue: The Famous Brothers Grimm

**Epilogue**

_The Famous Brothers Grimm_

No village in all of _Deutschland_ could compare to the peaceful Marbaden, nestled on the edge of the ancient Thuringian forest. Everyone was cheerful, children played gaily in the streets, and there was a constant calm beneath the thrum of daily life.

However occasionally at night when the full moon would hang over the forest the villagers would draw their daughters closer, or at the cry of a raven a look of haunted fear would appear in the eyes of the elder village folk. These were the last remaining signs of the fact that until two years prior the villagers had lived in terror of a witch and the town had been cursed.

Of all the villagers, there was one family who understood the curse most. They had experienced the effects of the curse more than any others and for years longer. It had also been they who had vanquished this evil. They were two brothers by the name of Grimm.

Currently the brothers were sitting at a table in the home of the younger brother, Wilhelm. Several worn journals were spread out on the tabletop in front of them and they were talking determinedly as they turned through the pages.

"Should we include this one?" Jakob, the elder brother, asked, pointing at one passage.

"No," Wilhelm said and changed the page. "That one still needs work. What about this one? Let's include it instead."

"Alright, boys, put the books away," Jakob's wife, Angelika, said and began pushing aside the journals so she could put bowls on the table. "Lorita's nearly finished with the stew."

"I thought you were making it," Wilhelm said, looking up in surprise and alarm. "She's supposed to be being careful."

"You know how she is," Angelika said by way of answer and rolled her eyes. At that moment Lorita herself entered the room and glanced at them interestedly.

"How who is?" she asked with a wry smile, cocking an eyebrow daringly at her husband.

"You," Wilhelm said although he could tell she already knew. "You're supposed to be resting." As he said this he set a hand on his wife's bulging stomach tenderly. "Our little Will is going to be here soon."

"I am only making a bit of stew," Lorita said exasperatedly. However, after Wilhelm persisted, she took a seat at the table and allowed Angelika to finish the meal. Curiously she pulled one of the journals towards her and glanced at the title on the page. "_Little Briar-Rose_," she read.

"That's me!" Aurora, Jakob's daughter, came rushing across the room. The girl, now five-years-old, pressed herself to Lorita's side and looked at the page curiously. "I'm the princess that was put to sleep by the evil witch and then rescued by the prince."

"Yes you are," Lorita agreed and tugged on her braid. "I was there, remember?"

"Papa and _Onkel _Will put your story in there too," Aurora said. "The pretty faerie that came out of the tree."

"Did your uncle also include the fact that the faerie put him under a spell?" Lorita asked and smiled mischievously at Wilhelm. Aurora's eyes widened with curiosity and she shook her head. "Well when the faerie gave him her blood it transferred some of her faerie life into him. That's how come he looks so much younger than he is now, because she gave him several years of her youth."

"I know, now my older brother is my younger brother," Jakob said with mock annoyance.

"Don't be bitter," Wilhelm said and patted his brother's shoulder. "I was the older one for the last three decades, now it's your turn."

As the brothers began bickering again, Aurora turned her focus back to Lorita. "Was there more to the spell?"

"There was," Lorita agreed. "It also linked their souls so they can sense each other's thoughts. So when the faerie feels scared or happy or angry, Wilhelm can feel it too."

"Which explains why Wilhelm appears at our house before anyone else knows Lorita is getting angry," Jakob added in and received a slap from Wilhelm for it.

"Thanks for that, now she knows those weren't just coincidental visits," Wilhelm grumbled.

"I already knew that," Lorita informed him with an amused smile. At that moment Angelika announced that supper was ready and they settled down to eat. It wasn't long after they had begun that there was a knock on the door and Baldwinn entered. He greeted them all cheerfully, and even gave Wilhelm a courteous smile. Although he had acknowledged the great deed Wilhelm had done for them, Baldwinn had not quite forgiven him for kidnapping Lorita and offering her as a sacrifice to the queen, even if it had been against his will. The news that he was about to get a grandchild had certainly eased his hatred for Wilhelm considerably though. He joined them for the meal and at its conclusion he played with Aurora while the wives cleaned dishes and the brothers returned to their books.

"Well, I believe that's finished," Wilhelm said, looking at the bound collection they had assembled. The book contained eighty-six faerie tales that they had either collected from other places, such as the tale of the beautiful woman who lost her slipper at the ball or the piper who lured the rats into the river, or ones that were loosely based off events of their own lives, including the man who stole children unless you guessed his name and the vain queen who was fairest of them all. Together they were titled 'Children's and Household Tales' and were set to be published soon, as they had already been approached by a man who had heard them telling tales to the village children and wanted them to write a collection so they could publish them.

Within the week the collection had been accepted by the man and the name Grimm became known across all of _Deutschland_ as the greatest storytellers of their time. They lived pleasant lives with their families in Marbaden, supported by the profits from their book and subsequent volumes. That winter Lorita gave birth to a daughter who was named Lotte, and a year later they also had twins named Dorthea and Wilhelm Jr. Jakob and Angelika never had another child, although they continued to support Angelika's younger sisters through their schooling and until they were married as well. Life for the Grimms could not have been any better.

…And they all lived happily ever after…

* * *

A/N: Just as a factoid, a few things I included here are true. The first collection of faerie tales was actually entitled 'Children's and Household Tales' and contained eighty-six stories that included such tales and 'Little Briar-Rose' 'Rumplestiltskin' and 'Snow White and Rose Red.' Also in real life, Jakob was in fact the elder brother, which is part of the reason that I had Wilhelm end up younger than Jakob. Or maybe this all just proves that I put too much research into a fanfic... Anyway, _Abschied liebe Freunde_ or 'Farewell Dear Friends.'


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